Road Dogs
by the ramblin rose
Summary: If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. - Lewis Carroll The end of the world has a way of bringing some pretty unlikely people together, all trying to outrun something, even if they don't know what it is. How long can they keep running before the road just runs out?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So I'm starting this one. I've been picking at it for some time now. It's a ZA fic. It starts before Season 1 and it will go somewhat with the show (to a point), but I'm going to be doing my own thing. **

**I started thinking about it some time back when someone asked me to consider writing a story where the Dixon brothers found my OC Alice before they ever met the Atlanta group. The person (sorry, I don't remember who) wanted it to be a Daryl/Alice fic…but they forgot one little tidbit of information about Alice. **

**Still, the idea bled into this idea. It's something a "rewrite" I guess. I'm taking a lot of license, so characters will be a little different to fit the world I'm building and the plot may resemble that from the show at times, but I'm going to be taking a lot of license there too. This is just for fun. It might take a little bit to get going, but I think it could be fun. **

**It will eventually be a Caryl fic, but that's going to take a little bit. **

**If it needs to be said, I don't own anything from the Walking Dead. All I own are original characters and plot lines. **

**If you decide to read, I hope you enjoy! **

**Like everyone, I love reviews, so let me know what you think! **

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"I'm tellin' you," Daryl growled at his older brother, Merle, keeping his voice just low enough that they wouldn't wreck their chances of eating anything that night besides the one runty ass little raccoon that had stumbled across their path not too long after they'd left the truck and bike to go in search of something to eat, "shit gets worse after dark…we'd best be findin' a place to pitch a tent 'fore long."

Hell had broken loose in Georgia and there was no other way to look at it.

When they'd first started seeing the reports on the news, Merle and Daryl both had turned their heads and looked in the other direction.

Some asshole showed up, chewed the face off another asshole. Some dickhead tore a chunk out of another. Some other asshole terrorized a free clinic.

But what all the reports had in common was that nobody knew a damn thing about what the hell was going on. At first they'd said it was some kind of new designer drug or some shit gone wrong. Neither of the Dixons had found that too hard to believe given the fact that they'd seen some people messed up on a good bit of shit. It wasn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that someone had come up with yet another chemical failure that had driven someone mad enough that they might kill or even eat someone else.

Then the reports had started saying that the problem was some kind of virus. It was like some kind of superflu like the ones that birds and mosquitos and shit spread around like crazy and everyone passed to everyone else. It was highly contagious and apparently fried the person's brain to the point that they were completely unrecognizable.

And then shit had gotten even weirder. Because then they'd started saying that they were trapped in some kind of Night of the Living Dead shit and that corpses were walking around just the same as when they were alive…but they were blood thirsty and flesh hungry.

The only good thing about it was that all the reports came from places that didn't mean a thing to Daryl, and they meant even less to Merle.

The first damn time Daryl had seen one of the living sacks of rotting flesh in person, though, he'd been damn near stunned enough to get himself torn up in the process. He'd been driving home from picking his brother up from doing another night's stint in jail, thanks to his inability to know how to keep his mouth shut when he drank too damn much, and there had been cars pulled off the side of the road and people running around like headless chickens.

Daryl had gotten out of the truck to find out what the hell was going on and to clear the way for himself, not exactly thinking that hitting anyone…no matter how accidental because of their behavior…was going to go over well for him in court, his brother being so well known and such by the local law enforcement.

When he'd seen what the hell was going on, though, he'd been just as stunned as everyone running around losing their shit. There were probably twenty people that had come from the pile of now empty cars and three of them were these very same people…or better, creatures…that the news had been yacking about. And they were busy…with an image that was scalded into Daryl's brain forever…eating the two small kids of one of the families that had spilled out the cars while the helpless parents ran around screaming for help when no one could have offered them a damn thing at that point.

Daryl had stood there, not knowing what to do, until one of the things finished with the kid it had all but devoured completely and suddenly turned its attention to all the rest of the action going on around it.

And Daryl had looked straight at it and known that whether or not it had ever been a person before, it wasn't a person now…and it didn't matter to him if it was drugs or a virus…or some kind of sick joke from the universe.

When it had come in his direction, grunting and growling, gnashing its teeth at him, he'd backed up in a hurry toward his truck, not knowing what else to do, and damn near tripped over his shoelace. His brother had been passed the hell out and the people around him…another couple being torn up at the moment…weren't doing anything but waiting their turn.

So he'd gotten the gun out of the truck as quickly as he could and shot the thing…four times in the chest and it never stopped. Finally he'd blown the fucker's brains out and it had dropped like a lead balloon in front of him, probably only moments before making him just another sad ass statistic on the news these days.

Daryl had hauled ass out of there, not too ashamed to say he'd come closer that day to pissing his pants than he had within the span of his memory, and he'd called the cops…but the fuckers didn't believe him and threatened to send an officer out there after him, thinking he had gotten into some of Merle's shit.

And he didn't wait around to see if it ended up on the news.

Merle and Daryl had packed up their shit, not that there was a lot of it to take with them, and they'd taken to the woods. These creatures seemed to be living in the city and whatever it was causing the problem seemed to be centered there…but it was drifting farther out.

So their solution had been to get even farther out. Hit the woods. Get the hell away from people and get the hell away from the animated corpses until the air cleared and it was safe again…if it was ever safe again.

And so far, they'd been doing pretty decent. They went hungry sometimes and they went without sleep pretty often, or at least Daryl did, but they were doing pretty decent. There were certainly others that Daryl imagined were doing a hell of a lot worse.

They'd seen more and more of the damned things in the woods since they'd been out there, but they hadn't gotten torn to shreds yet and Daryl was inclined to believe that was about the best possible outcome they could expect. As long as they ran into the things from time to time, they knew that the government…or the army…or the damn boy scouts or whoever was supposed to clean this mess up hadn't gotten around to it and they ventured a little deeper into the woods…

Currently they were somewhere outside Atlanta, having travelled a good damn distance around Georgia to end up there, and the appearances of the corpses were getting more and more frequent. Daryl assumed they were trickling out from the city…but that just meant they'd have to be a little more careful to avoid them.

They weren't in any real hurry to get anywhere though. They didn't have anywhere to go really and they didn't have much of anything to their names…and they could live off the land pretty much indefinitely.

The only thing Merle was worried about, as far as Daryl could tell, was running out of the drugs that he cherished so damn much…and Daryl couldn't wait for that to happen.

Merle with DTs was a living hell…but Merle strung out was worse. And when he was strung out it was putting Daryl through hell to pull his ass along and handle however many of the corpses they might run into…something he couldn't keep up too long if they were going to keep dribbling into the woods from Atlanta.

At least tonight Merle was somewhat in his right mind. He'd taken at least a hit of something…but he wasn't wasted like he had been.

"Sleep in the damn truck," Merle said. "Unless you stayin' up tonight…I ain't fuckin' doin' it."

"I stayed up last night, Merle," Daryl growled. "An' the damn night before that. Your worthless ass's been passed out for the past five or six nights…you gotta straighten the fuck out you don't wanna get both of us killed."

Merle chuckled.

He thought this shit was funny. He thought this whole damn thing was like some kind of game. He walked around in his strung out state talking about bullshit that Daryl couldn't even understand about how the hell the would take over the world now that all this had gone down.

But even if they did take over the world at this point, it looked like they'd be the proud damn rulers of a steaming pile of shit…much like they'd always been.

"Cool ya damn jets, lil' brother," Merle said. "Sleep in the damn truck tonight…I'll watch out for the damn dogs walkin' around…let you curl up with ya damn blanky an' sleep…"

Daryl growled to himself and rolled his eyes.

If the corpses wandering around didn't kill his brother before he ran out of drugs, Daryl might very well do the honors for them.

"Just shut up, Merle," Daryl growled. "That coon ain't gonna hardly feed one a' us an' we ain't got too damn much food left…oughta try ta find some 'fore long."

"You too damn spoiled, boy," Merle said. "That's what'cha damn problem is. Ain't got no reason ta be eatin' outta cans an' shit…got all we need right out here…we livin' like kings…uh huh…"

"Like kings gnawin' on a half cooked, sickly lookin' damn coon," Daryl growled. "World's gone ta shit, Merle…you'd know that if you come out from under ya damn meth cloud for a minute…"

"Only reason this world's gone ta shit is 'cause a' your damn attitude," Merle mused. "An' the fact I'm stuck out here with your ass…ain't seen a piece a' tail in who the hell knows how damn long…that's what the hell we need ta be lookin' for lil' brother…fuck lookin' for cans a' pork'n beans."

Merle laughed at himself. Merle always found himself amusing…especially when Daryl didn't find him quite so charming.

When the yelling rang out, Daryl stopped in his tracks. It was a sound that he hadn't heard in some time. It was the sound of people yelling…the dead things, whatever they were, didn't yell.

"What the hell is that?" Daryl asked. "Sounds like someone's in trouble…"

"Sounds like somethin' ain't none a' our damn business," Merle said.

When the yells rang out again, there was undeniably the sound of a woman's voice among the din and Merle suddenly got something of a smile on his face.

Pussy changed Merle's tune in almost any situation.

Daryl swung his crossbow down and started toward the sound, not even having to ask if Merle was behind him…because he knew that he was, not that he'd likely be too much help if he was too messed up to shoot straight.

When they found the source of the noise, though, Daryl didn't know how much help either one of them would be…because the people there were mostly using their last breaths to yell and they'd already learned there wasn't any saving someone if the sorry asshole already got bit by one of these things.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So we're getting off to a slow start here, but at least our characters (some of them) are meeting. We've still got a few chapters before we hit the quarry. **

**And I know I'm great with action chapters…but I do my best. There will probably be a few of them to suffer through in this story, so sorry about that! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Daryl could only hope that Merle was enough in his right mind to throw himself into this, because if they were going to do anything about the massacre that was taking place, it was probably going to take both of them.

And they needed to do something. Because they had already learned from the experience of running up on unlucky people that when someone got torn up from one of the creatures, the person had the potential to turn into one of the creatures themselves if they weren't torn up beyond a certain point.

Since they'd stumbled into a little bed of what looked to be four of the creatures any number of people who might soon become creatures themselves, something had to be done.

Daryl kept his distance far enough not to draw the attention of anything not feeding at the moment and shot an arrow through the skull of one of the creatures. Satisfied with himself, he loaded another one and dropped one of the other creatures, but he suddenly had the attention of the other two…and of a third that he hadn't noticed before.

"Shit!" He spat, his hands shaking slightly as he tried to load his crossbow again. "Lil' damn help here, Merle!"

He fired off the arrow and hit his mark, but there wouldn't be time to shoot the other two using the crossbow and he wasn't wearing a gun. He yanked his knife out of his belt and squared off, trying to figure out how to get the best go at the one nearing him.

Around them it was hard to tell if there was anyone that might live. There was a good deal of yelling and noise, but Daryl couldn't focus on any of that at the moment.

He lunged toward the nearest creature, hoping to get the best of it, but he still wasn't entirely sure how to handle the creatures yet. They were oddly stronger than people…and stronger than they looked like they would be. It also didn't help that nothing hurt them beyond shooting them in the head or stabbing them in the head…so you couldn't even wound the assholes to get the upper hand. It was either a kill shot or you were fucked.

Daryl rolled with the creature that he'd tangled up with, trying to get in the position to stab it, and he was surprised when it suddenly stopped struggling back at him, snapping at his face, and fell forward on him.

Merle heaved the body off of Daryl and stood over him chuckling, licking at his teeth while he stared at him.

"Damn lil' brother," Merle commented. "You was just about dog chow…woulda been your ole brother hadn't been here ta save ya sorry ass."

Daryl could barely breathe.

The thing he was learning, faster than anything else, was that he wasn't nearly in as good a shape as he thought he was.

Daryl pushed himself up on his elbows, heaving to get his breath, and he reached an arm up toward Merle. Merle jerked him upward and slapped him hard enough on the back to have taken away his air if he'd had it to begin with.

Looking around and taking inventory of the situation, it looked like there was very little movement left.

One woman up on her knees, and she was crying over the body of someone on the ground who was barely moving. Daryl started toward the other bodies for the moment, collecting up his used arrows and using them to make sure that the dead people stayed that way.

"Help him…can you help him?" The woman pleaded.

Daryl started in her direction, but Merle got there first.

"Just about to," he said. Less than a moment later he pulled out the pistol he'd been wearing at his hip and fired a round into the head of the man the brunette was leaning over.

And she screamed out in shock or anguish…maybe both.

"You killed him! You asshole! You killed him!" She yelled at Merle.

Daryl closed the distance between them as quickly as he could, not sure what might happen or what condition his brother was in. When Merle wasn't strung out, he wouldn't ever hurt a woman for anything in the world…but when he was strung out he could do all kinds of shit that his brain, had it been functioning, would have told him were bad ideas.

"Get your ass up or you gonna be dead too, sweetcheeks," Merle growled at the woman.

At least he wasn't lashing out at her for yelling at him. That was a good sign that whatever he'd taken had either been in a small enough dose or of limited enough potency that he wasn't completely out of his skull.

Merle reached down and snatched the woman up from her kneeling position on the ground with the same force that he'd used to pull Daryl up and she flew upward whether she wanted to or not.

"You bit?" Daryl asked coming over to check her. "Chewed up? They get their hands on you at all?"

The woman looked back and forth between them, tears streaming down her face, and Daryl suddenly worried that she might die from not breathing instead of from the creatures. He reached over and hit her in the back just hard enough to shock her into inhaling and she let out a pathetic cry following it.

"Stop ya damn cryin'!" Merle spat. "Did you get chewed the hell up?"

Daryl started searching her for himself, but for all the places he was finding blood, he discovered when he ran his hands across them that the blood wasn't hers. She'd come out of this unscathed.

"You ain't got a damn gun? Knife? Nothin'?" Daryl asked.

She had stopped crying at this point, but she was clearly in shock. Merle had let go of her arm and stepped away from her just a piece.

She shook her head at Daryl.

"I had a...knife. I had a knife…" she stuttered out, looking around at all the bodies and carnage at their feet. "I had a knife…"

"You said that shit," Merle said, looking around at the ground. "Where the fuck is it?"

The woman shook her head.

Daryl sighed and tried to figure out what the hell to do. This woman was shook up…and he could understand that. The creatures were enough to shake just about anyone…and he imagined women were a lot easier to get shook up than men were. After all…one of the fuckers had damn near made him piss himself.

"Look for ya damn knife," Daryl commanded. "Don't go no damn where. We ain't huntin' ya ass down…"

The brunette looked at him, nodded, and then began to scramble around, looking through the leaves. She was calming down.

Daryl pulled Merle off to the side by knocking him on the arm and gesturing for his brother to follow him. Merle did follow him, though as they walked he kept casting glances back toward the brunette who was on her hands and knees, crawling around the dead bodies.

"What the hell we do with her?" Daryl asked.

Merle chuckled.

"I know what the hell I got a mind ta do with her," Merle mused.

Daryl smacked him on the arm.

"Merle…get'cha head outta ya ass…this is serious," Daryl said.

"She ain't our damn problem, Daryl," Merle said.

"You're gonna leave that woman out here alone, Merle?" Daryl asked.

Merle smiled again and glanced over at her. She appeared to have calmed down and she had found some sort of weapon because she was examining it.

"Not if she plays nice," Merle said. "Hell…I ain't unreasonable."

Daryl rolled his eyes at Merle.

"We takin' this damn woman with us or what?" Daryl asked.

He didn't want the responsibility of this woman around and he certainly didn't want another mouth to feed…but if the woman could take care of herself, she could very well be good to have around…and even if she wasn't, Daryl wasn't sure he had the stomach to leave her there alone.

But Merle wasn't with him enough to be any damn help at all.

Daryl growled under his breath at his brother and Merle laughed at him lightly before he followed Daryl back toward the woman.

She looked different than she had even moments before because she was obviously calming a great deal.

"You found ya knife?" Daryl asked.

She shook her head.

"No…it isn't mine, but it's better than mine I think," the woman responded. "Although…I feel bad taking Jonathan's knife right out of his hand…"

"If the fucker's here, he don't need it," Merle said, looking around.

"You know how the hell ta kill these things?" Daryl asked.

"Do you mean…people…or…the corpses?" the woman asked, furrowing her brow.

"Whatever the fuck you need ta kill," Merle spat. "You got the balls ta do what the hell you need ta do or we just as well shoot'cha right now an' leave ya with ya boyfriend?"

"Merle!" Daryl spat.

The woman looked at both of them.

"I can kill if I need to," she said. "Not this damn many…they just came at us…out of nowhere. It was like they weren't there and then Carrie screamed…and they were already…ripping her damn throat out and they were at all of us!"

Daryl looked around again at the bodies and then back at his brother who was ogling the woman without apology while she was standing there, slick with other people's blood, still trying to figure out what the hell had happened to her and whoever the people were that were with her.

Even if they weren't going to keep her with them, it would be only decent to keep her around through the night. If she slept at all she might be more able to make some decisions for herself. He might able to make some decent decisions himself.

"I'm Daryl…this here's Merle," Daryl said.

"Alice," the woman said.

None of them offered the other any customary gesture of greeting. It just seemed out of place at the moment or something.

"You got supplies? Shit you travelin' with? Anything?" Daryl asked.

Alice nodded.

"We…uh…have a camp, sort of…it's about…I don't fucking know…it's over in that direction," Alice said. "We were coming down here for water. There's a little river right over there…"

"Ain't no damn river…creek maybe…took all you damn people ta come down here for water? Daryl an' me's been on our own this damn long an' you take everyone you know ta get water?" Merle grumbled.

Daryl shook his head at the woman. She looked at Merle, furrowed her brows and then spoke, as much to Daryl as to Merle.

"None of us were great at killing these things…strength in numbers…" Alice said.

She looked around, a little of the shocked look returning to her face.

"Strength in numbers and…I'm the only one left…everyone else is dead," she said.

And Daryl could tell she was on the verge of it hitting her for real this time. She was on the verge of understanding the words that she was saying…since right now he figured her ass might be set on autopilot.

"Let's go to ya damn camp," Daryl said, starting in the direction that she'd signaled with her and his brother both following him. "See if there's anything worth takin' with us. We got our damn truck an' bike in that direction…tonight we'll sleep in the damn truck an' tomorrow we'll figure out what the hell we're gonna do with ya ass…"

"What you're going to do with me?" The woman asked, her tone of voice and facial expression changing for the first time from somewhat blank into obviously bothered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

And Daryl suddenly wondered if they might not have done better to just leave her ass alone out there.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**I feel the need to reiterate, if you need it, that characters are going to be adapted to my vision of this story, so they may be a little "OOC". Also, soon we'll be meeting the quarry group, so again they may be slightly different and I'm already certain that the storyline/plot is going to be quite different than that of the show, only resembling it in some places. I just don't want anyone to be too surprised.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Daryl woke to the sound of a loud groan coming from the woman that they'd ended up with through no choosing of their own the day before. They were all crammed, very tightly, into the cab of the truck and her groan was about twice as loud as that coming from any of the flesh eating creatures throwing themselves against the outside of the vehicle.

Daryl would have rolled over and ignored her, but in their current conditions there wasn't much rolling…and there wasn't much ignoring.

"Fucking hell…this is a nightmare," Alice declared.

"Shut the fuck up…" Daryl growled, go back to sleep.

The night before she'd hardly said anything. She'd been in a type of shock, but much like Daryl had suspected, it had faded with a night's sleep. And apparently now she was feeling opinionated instead of like the sheep she'd practically been before.

"Who the hell smells like vomit?" Alice asked, crammed against her will between Daryl and Merle. Merle was snoring loudly, clearly sleeping off something that he'd taken when Daryl wasn't looking. Daryl had tried to get rid of some of Merle's stash here and there, but for the most part it was hidden well enough that he simply couldn't find any of it.

"You do," Daryl responded.

It probably was just as true as it was untrue. They all stunk. Everything in the world stunk now. That's what the hell happened when animated and decaying corpses were running around eating people who either became other creatures or, if they were destroyed badly enough, simply stayed where they were to rot. That, coupled with the fact that it took a lot of guts to drop your pants to answer the call of nature, less likely to strip down with the intention of bathing, made for a pretty putrid smelling environment.

"Holy hell…seriously…can I move…can…anything? I've gotta piss…I mean like you're about to get the bath you never wanted…right now," Alice declared.

"You want out there with them?" He asked, shifting enough to see that they were currently holding the attention of at least three of the creatures.

"Given my choices?" Alice responded. "Yeah…I want out there with them. You want me to pee all over you? Because I wasn't joking about that."

Merle groaned, waking then from his peaceful slumbers.

"What the fuck are you bitchin' about?" He growled to neither of them and both of them at once.

"I want out of here…I've got to piss and I've become the filling in a noxious redneck sandwich…" Alice responded. "And I don't even want to know what the hell is digging into my leg right now."

Merle leaned closer on her.

"Good damn mornin' ta you too, sugar tits," he crooned at her, his voice gravelly from just waking up. She scoffed.

Daryl growled to himself. They were going to have to get up eventually. They had to eat and the food that they'd gotten from the half ass camp that the brunette had taken them to was all in the back of the truck for the night since the creatures had no interest at all in actual food. They were going to have to hunt too because the pathetically cooked coon from the night before, split three ways, hadn't exactly left them with anything for today.

Daryl shifted around enough to go for one of the knives on the dash, the other weapons stored in the back for the time being as well, and rolled down the window enough to get an arm out and stab the most curious of the creatures as it tried to stick its head through the crack provided.

He pulled the knife out and gestured with his head toward the dash.

"Get a damn knife then," he said. "I open this door ta let your ass out an' you're killin' at least one of these fuckers."

The woman shifted around enough, curling her lip at Merle who was laughing at the whole situation…and probably at the fact that he was taking more advantage of it than he had to for rubbing himself against her…to get one of the knives. When Daryl could see that she was armed, he pushed the door open and dropped out of the truck quickly, realizing as soon as he almost fell over the creature that he'd recently killed that he had to piss as bad as she was complaining that she had to.

He sidestepped out of the way as quickly as he could and put a hand up to ward off one of the creatures that dove at him. The brunette spilled out the truck beside him and he barely sunk his knife into the creature's head that he was fighting with before he turned and walked a few steps in her direction, where she was now wrestling with the third one, thinking that he was going to have to save her sorry hide again.

But she downed the creature before he could get there, stumbling forward with it and spilling herself into the thick blanket of leaves on the ground.

Daryl reached out a hand and heaved her up without saying anything at first. She took advantage to dart off and he watched her as she ran behind a tree not too far from them.

He wasn't that modest and he could give a damn if she saw him take a piss, so he simply turned his back and took care of his business right where he was.

Merle was the last to spill out of the truck, rubbing his face.

"Where the hell the woman go?" He asked, obviously having missed her run for the tree.

"Pissin' behind that tree," Daryl replied.

Merle, not being modest, didn't go anywhere either.

"What the hell we doin' with that woman?" Merle asked. "Keepin' her 'til she gets herself killed or what?"

Daryl grunted.

"I don't know…hell…she done alright with that one she killed," Daryl said, coming over to lean against the truck. "Gotta learn how ta stay on her damn feet, though…they too heavy for her…pulled her clean over."

"Funny thing is," Alice called out, coming back toward them, "that she can hear. And she's not a pet…you can't just decide to keep me."

"You wanna go off on ya damn on…get then," Merle growled, slinging an arm in her direction. "Don't need ya damn ass taggin' around no way."

"Are you always like this? Or do I just really bring out the prince charming in your ass?" Alice barked back at him.

Daryl just stood there, leaning on the back of the truck, wondering how long it might take the two of them to kill each other. He let them yammer back and forth for a moment, knowing Merle well enough to know that he enjoyed someone who would bicker with him, even if he pretended he didn't, before he figured it was time to get control of the situation.

"What the fuck we doin'?" Daryl asked. "'Cause you come with us or you don't…we got shit ta do."

"I'm sorry?" Alice responded. "Were you late for something?"

"Gotta hunt you wanna eat," Daryl said. "Gotta hunt you don't wanna eat…'cause I sure as shit do. Who the hell are you, anyway?"

Alice scratched at her head. She was as filthy as both of them were, even if she didn't realize it. From the looks of her she was wearing some pretty disgusting pajamas…but it was hard to tell with the nice crust of blood, guts, mud…and whatever the hell else she was wearing.

"Who are you?" She asked. "I've got a lot more reason to be wary of you two then you've got to be scared of me…I am a woman, if you haven't noticed and I don't really want to add rape to my list of fun filled shit I've done in the past month or so…"

"You think pretty damn highly of yourself," Merle commented. "Dixon men don't have ta rape women…you'll be beggin' for it 'fore long."

Alice made a gagging noise and Daryl wasn't entirely certain if it was real or fake.

"We ain't gonna rape you," he said. "I'm Daryl…this is Merle…we're brothers…they ain't too damn much more ta tell."

"I'm Alice…Dr. Alice Walker," Alice responded. "I don't know what you want to know…I'm from Atlanta and I got the hell out of there when they started blowing up places and killing everyone that was moving."

"We ain't been in the city yet," Daryl said, scratching his own itch as he watched her scratch at hers.

"Don't waste your time," Alice said. "It's all gone…and if it isn't, it will be soon. Do you have any ideas what the hell these things are?"

"Dead people," Merle said blankly.

"Well hell…there you go," Alice said, waving a hand at him. "All the answers I dreamed of having. They're dead…but they're not dead. They've got brain function…well…some of it at least."

"Fuckin' walkin' corpses…" Merle growled.

He was more interested in his bike now than anything else and Daryl was watching him out of the corner of his eye, hoping to catch him in the act of going for a hit of something…hoping to figure out where the hell he was hiding it. He couldn't take it from Merle without a fight, but if he could find it when Merle was passed out, he might be able to convince him that he didn't have a damn clue where it had been or where it had gone.

"Walking corpses…living dead…and we're human chew toys," Alice commented. "But…not all the corpses get up. Why don't they all get up?"

Daryl sucked his teeth.

"Only damn way ta kill the Walkers, or whatever the hell you wanna call 'em, is ta fuck up their brains," he said. "Ones that stay put musta already lost their brain function or some shit…"

Alice sighed.

"I guess," she said.

"This is a fun ass lil' party we're havin'," Merle commented, coming back over from his bike. Daryl cursed a little under his breath because he'd looked away from his brother for a few moments and now he wasn't sure if he'd taken anything or not…and only time would tell. "What's next? We gonna braid each other's hair? Talk about our first damn fucks?"

Daryl shook his head. They needed to get to hunting…they needed to move on to wherever the hell they were going to stay the coming night.

And they probably needed to move away from Atlanta a little more, just in case the trickle of new Walkers decided to catch up with them.

"We movin' on…" Daryl said. "Get a lil' more distance between us an' that city."

Merle chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Look at you, lil' brother, usin' that knot above ya ass for somethin'…let's get the fuck outta here…smells like piss any damn way…" Merle commented. He went toward his bike again and threw a leg over, waiting on Daryl to make a move toward his truck.

"Time for makin' decisions," Daryl said. "You tag along with us you pull your own damn weight…or you can go skippin' off like damn Goldilocks, but we about ta move out."

Alice stared at him a moment, her hand on her hip, and without responding verbally she walked around to the passenger side of the truck and yanked open the door. Daryl got in the driver's seat, taking that as his answer, and cranked the truck, ready to roll down the fairly abandoned back road that they'd been following for at least a week's time and keep them heading toward whatever the hell they were heading for…not that any of them had any idea what it might be.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hi everyone! Here we go, another little chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Uncounted days they continued on together, aimlessly, continuing down one road and another. These days life was more repetitive than it had ever been before and boring was a blessing. They ate when there was food to eat, hunted when there wasn't, and they rolled up and down what back roads they could, clearly retracing their own steps from time to time, sleeping crammed together like sardines in the truck at night for whatever protection the rusty shell provided them.

The life they led now, if it could even be called that, was oddly conducive to familiarity. Daryl felt like, even though conversation was sparse between them all, that he and his brother already knew their brunette travelling companion better than many of the people they'd known for years outside the hellish snow globe of rotted corpses that they found themselves trapped inside of now.

And either it was the environment changing his perception, or she was damn near meant to be a Dixon with the way that she seemed to simply blend in and work with them when it was necessary and yammered back and forth with them in the rare moments of down time that they found.

So Daryl knew, the morning that he saw Merle bitching at her and following her around in a tight circle just by a stream that they'd found to wash up some things in and to fill their canteens, that Merle was strung out on something, because he doubted at this point that Merle would have given her quite the run around he was giving her otherwise.

"Get the fuck off of me! I'm telling you I'm going to bust your skull wide open on these rocks if you don't!" Alice howled out at Merle, stepping away from him once more. He closed the gap between them, laughing to himself in the odd sort of laugh that he had when he was flying high on something, a laugh that wasn't his normal laugh.

These two could very well be why Daryl hadn't found a single thing for them to eat while he'd been wandering around the area hunting. Merle and Alice would run all the game off for a hundred miles if they kept up their bitching.

"Fuckin' cunt!" Merle responded. "Get the fuck back over here…why the hell you bein' such a lil' bitch about it…tryin' ta tell ya stupid ass you just ain't knowed no good damn thing!"

As Daryl got closer, he knew what the shit was about. It was the same thing that it was always about when Merle got strung out like this around Alice. He would get horny and decide that he could turn her, since she was a rather "loud about it" dyke and that pissed Merle off because she was, in Merle's words, not too bad to look at and she was the only woman around, maybe the only woman alive.

"Merle!" Daryl called out. "Merle! Back the hell off her!"

Daryl didn't figure that Merle would do anything to her except try to be nauseatingly persuasive, to put it nicely, since Merle didn't believe in violence of any kind against women, but the drugs sometimes turned Merle into someone that even Daryl didn't recognize.

Merle turned quickly at Daryl's approach and smiled at him, licking his lips. One look and Daryl knew that his brother was not in his right mind. He glanced at Alice who was standing, now, behind Merle. He hoped she knew what they were both dealing with now.

"What the hell you want, Derlina?" Merle called at him. "You couldn't do a damn thing with her no way…mmm hmmm…what she needs is a real damn man…someone knows what the hell he's doin'…you ever even took yours out lil' brother? Damn dick'll fall off ya don't use it…"

Daryl wasn't moved too much by his brother's words at the moment. He knew that they weren't Merle's words. He was cursing himself, though, because he still hadn't found the stash that Merle had and now it was clear that he'd hit it harder than he needed to. He'd hit it hard enough that they didn't need to deal with his ass like this.

He wasn't paying attention to Alice, though, and she apparently wasn't fully aware of what was happening since this was the worst that Merle had been since she'd run up with them.

"You're such a dick!" She called out. "Holy shit! If I wasn't a lesbian, I would be just from hearing you run your nasty mouth!"

Merle turned back and Daryl hissed to himself.

"You call me nasty? You lily lickin' bitch!" Merle said.

Daryl didn't hear what Alice said next because he lunged at Merle, already knowing that he was about to do something that he'd regret later. He made it to his brother a moment later than he'd hoped, and the smack that his brother doled out to the woman rung in his own ears even as he caught Merle around the arms.

"Fuckin' hell, Merle!" Daryl growled in his brother's ears. "You so damn outta ya skull you just about knocked her ass out!"

Merle fought with him, then. He turned the frustration or whatever it was that he felt toward Alice on his brother and they rolled around for a moment. Daryl slamming to the ground and his brother following after him. They might have fought until one of them killed the other, but Merle's body suddenly went limp and fell forward on Daryl. Daryl realized, then, that he had been knocked unconscious, and looking around his brother's body as he worked to roll him to the side, he discovered that Alice, blood running down from her freshly busted lip, was still holding the rock she'd used to knock Merle out with.

"D'you fuckin' kill him?" Daryl spat.

Alice wiped at her face with the hand not holding the rock. She shook her head.

"No…but I sure as shit stopped him for a little while," she responded.

Daryl got out from under his brother's body and came over to look at Alice's face. Her lip was good and busted, but it wouldn't cause any lasting damage. He went over then to look at Merle, but he figured he'd live through what she'd done…at least he hoped he would, and Alice was the one among them that at least claimed to have a medical degree.

"He wouldn'ta hit your ass if he weren't on whatever the hell he took," Daryl responded, not knowing what else to say.

"But he did hit me," Alice said. "And I thought it wasn't a good damn idea to hang around waiting to see what else he might do right now. We'll tie him up, put him in the truck until he comes back around and this gets out of his system."

"He'll be real pissed he wakes up an' we've tied him up," Daryl said.

Alice laughed.

"What the hell does it matter if he's pissed?" She responded. "We don't untie him until he gets un-pissed. Now come on and help me before he comes to and I have to hit him again. I'm trying to avoid causing him permanent brain damage beyond what he's done to himself."

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"You fucked up," Daryl said. "You busted her mouth…you mighta up an' raped her."

Merle cringed at Daryl's words, another indication that he was finally out from under the cloud of his artificial personality.

He'd raised hell when he'd woken up in the truck, his arms and legs bound. He'd raised more hell when they wouldn't let him loose even to feed himself and Alice had forced him into the first spoon feeding that Merle had probably ever succumbed to since he'd come out of diapers.

But finally he'd stopped raising hell, and now that night was getting close, he was showing signs of having come down from whatever high he was on, if he wasn't clear altogether. Daryl had untied him and he was talking to him now while Alice refilled canteens and loaded the back of the truck so that they could break camp first thing in the morning.

"I wouldn't rape no damn body," Merle growled. "I ain't like that an' if you don't know that then I don't know you."

Daryl shook his head at his brother.

"You ain't you when you take that shit," Daryl responded. "You tellin' me you'da busted her ass in the face you weren't strung out on that shit?"

Merle clenched his jaw at Daryl, but Daryl knew the answer to his own question.

"She prob'ly deserved that shit," Merle said. "She's a mouthy bitch."

Daryl nodded his head slightly.

"She's a mouthy bitch," Daryl said. "But you an' me know that don't give you no right ta raise your hands to her. Merle…look at her. She can't fight you off with her bare hands…an' you know what the hell you always said. You don't raise your hands ta no damn woman unless she's man enough ta make it a fair fight."

"Bitch thinks she's a man," Merle growled.

Daryl shook his head at Merle.

"Listen to yaself! Ya make me fuckin' sick! Them drugs mean that damn much to you? They mean enough ta you that you'd go beatin' on a woman? They mean more ta you than ya damn moral code?" Daryl had never wanted to spit on his brother before, not really, but at the moment he did. He'd had it with him and his drugs to the point that he could almost feel himself offering Merle the ultimatum that it was him or the drugs.

Merle sucked his teeth.

"That woman ain't nothin' ta us," Merle said. "She ain't blood."

"No," Daryl responded. "She ain't blood…but she's more ta me than a sack a shit that rots ya damn brain an' has ya actin' like you ain't no damn better'n some kinda animal."

"You watcha mouth, boy!" Merle responded. "Don't you go mouthin' off, callin' me some kinda damn animal!"

"You ain't one," Daryl retorted quickly, "but when you take that shit…you don't seem ta remember you ain't."

Daryl heard Alice coming up to the truck again, grunting under the strain of the heaviest of the water barrels that they'd gotten from her little camp. Daryl stepped away from Merle, leaving him to sulk over yet another discussion that the drugs had to go, and he helped her heave the barrel into the back of the truck.

"That's the last of them," she said. "We're all filled up, but we're out of food, so we've got to hunt in the morning and we should look for somewhere to go looking for canned goods. I saw some houses not too far from here, I could check them out."

Daryl glanced back toward his brother, sitting half in the cab of the truck, and then nodded his head slightly. Merle hated the idea of searching houses for food. He found it, somehow, less respectable than hunting. Daryl might have thought that it had to do with not wanting to steal, but that wasn't the case because Merle was more than comfortable with removing other things, things they couldn't use now if they wanted to, from houses under the claim that they'd been left behind and they were unwanted, so he was claiming them.

But Daryl knew that food was more valuable to them at the moment than anything that might fill a bank account somewhere.

"We get some time tomorrow, I'll take him hunting," Daryl said. "You go an' get what the hell you can."

Alice nodded her head at him slightly.

They started toward the cab of the truck to bed down for the night and Merle hopped out, presumably to allow Alice to take her place in the middle, and Daryl saw her visibly flinch when Merle reached his hand out and caught her face under the chin.

"Ya face OK?" He asked.

Alice relaxed.

"Nice to have you back," she said, his hand still holding her face. "I think I'll probably live."

"Shouldn'ta hit'cha," Merle growled. That was about the closest you'd ever get to an apology from Merle Dixon, and Daryl knew it. Apparently Alice knew it too.

"It's alright," she said. "Shit happens…just don't let it happen again or I'll knock you out again and surgically remove your testicles."

Merle chuckled, licking his lips a little at her challenge. Daryl chuckled too because he doubted, sincerely, that it was a challenge at all.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter! I hope you enjoy. **

**Let me know what you think! **

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It was the most Walkers that Daryl had ever seen and they'd seemed to come out of nowhere. They'd seem to come from every direction too. It was like being swarmed by pissed off bees, except for these bees were far more deadly than their insect counterparts.

And their little group was entirely split. Daryl had no idea, in the confusion of the moment, where his brother was and Alice was even farther away. He'd sent her off looking for canned goods and he'd kept close to Merle, attempting to keep his brother, who luckily wasn't off his rocker today, from taking some shit and harassing the woman.

As Daryl was fighting his way madly through the stinking corpses, the truck barely in sight over the shoulders of more to be worked toward, it hit him.

They were in this alone. Each of them was alone in this. They could travel together and they could want to stay together, but at the moment it was almost impossible to imagine that any of them would survive for their own efforts, less likely that they could have any hope of saving each other. It was every man for himself.

That thought tore at Daryl worse than the thought of the snapping teeth ripping into his flesh. He hated to be alone. He pretended that it didn't bother him. He pretended that he was better off alone. He pretended that he didn't need a soul in this world and that it was better that way because he couldn't guarantee that anyone would ever be there for him.

But for all his pretending, in the back of his mind he knew that it bothered him to be alone and he knew that he had always felt like, even through his protests that it wasn't true, that his brother would be there for him…that someone would be there. Someone might not be there every time he looked, but they would be there.

And now he realized that he was so alone that he didn't know where his brother was, he didn't know where Alice was, and he had very little hope that they would show up again. They were probably dead…and the comfort, perhaps, was that he might soon be joining them.

With all the energy that he could muster up, Daryl fought his way through the piles of animated corpses toward the rusty truck that had gotten them this far. If he could get inside, they couldn't get to him.

Just as he was making progress, he'd get slowed down, and then he'd make progress again. His muscles were growing exhausted, reminding him that he wasn't in the shape that he needed to be in for this new world that he was managing. The process was moving at a crawling pace, but slowly he was getting somewhere.

By the time he reached the passenger door of the truck and moved to rip it open, he barely had the strength to even yank it open. He didn't have it in him to fight off a single other one of the dead men walking.

So when another launched itself at him, the truck in his grasp, he figured he would die in the biggest cloud of irony ever. He would die with his hand on the prize.

And he might have…if it hadn't been for the gunshot that rang out, the first he'd heard since the fight had started, followed by the best sound he'd ever heard in his life.

"Holy shit, lil' brotha! Get'cha dumb ass in the fuckin' truck!" Merle called out.

Daryl laughed. He actually laughed because he couldn't do anything else. There was his brother, making his way out of a pile of the things, their bodies dropping as he came, his garish hunting knife in one hand and the pistol, limited ammunition at best, in the other hand.

Daryl pulled the door open and slid into the cab of the truck and Merle made it and slid in beside him after he killed and yanked back a Walker that seemed to want to come along for the ride.

The door slammed and the protective metal of the truck cab around them, Daryl fought back the urge to cry or to hug his brother, knowing Merle might not appreciate either.

"You saved my life…" he panted.

Merle chuckled.

"Hell…you was just takin' a breather," Merle commented. "I seen you givin' 'em hell. You just too damn soft…gotta toughen the hell up."

"Shut the fuck up, Merle," Daryl responded, laughing because he was happy to be able to say those words at the moment.

"Let's roll, brother," Merle crowed.

Daryl cranked the truck and looked around for absolutely any sign of the brunette that had been travelling with them, his chest catching in a way that he'd never expected it to do when the time came for them to bid her farewell.

"What about Alice?" Daryl asked.

Merle sucked his teeth and looked around.

"I ain't seen her ass for a while," Merle said.

"We oughta wait for her," Daryl commented.

The Walkers were closing in around the truck, though, and if they waited too long they weren't going to be able to even drive through them. They'd bunch up too much.

"Fuck it, Daryl," Merle said. "That lil' woman's deader'n dead. Next time ya see her ass she's gonna look like one a' these fuckers. We gotta go…ashes ta ashes an' dust ta dust."

Daryl felt his stomach churn, but he could tell that Merle was clean. He wasn't bullshitting and he wasn't just trying to be a dick. Alice was dead and if they didn't get out of there while the getting was good, they were going to be equally as dead.

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The longer that they drove, straight down the main highway that they'd been rolling down for days in between stopping and making camp, the more that it got to Daryl that Alice was dead. He was kicking himself now for ever having even started to get attached to the bitch. She was just like everybody else…he'd let her in and she was gone now.

And for as pissed as he wanted to be that she'd up and died on them, Daryl felt foolishly bad that they hadn't somehow found her and put her to rest. She wouldn't have wanted to be one of the wandering freaks setting out to chew someone up. She was a doctor and she'd declared to Daryl on more than one occasion how seriously she'd taken her job…how seriously she'd taken her promise to do everything she could to save people.

She wouldn't want to be responsible for tearing them to shreds, even if she didn't know she was doing it.

Daryl glanced over at Merle who was quiet. He was more than likely lamenting the fact that they'd lost their entire camp, his motorcycle, and possibly his drugs more than he was lamenting the loss of the brunette.

And as much as Daryl had hoped that they would end up without any way for Merle to get a fix, he'd never hoped that it would come at the cost of a life.

"How far we goin', Merle?" Daryl asked. "Got two good hours before dark…we gonna make camp?"

Merle laughed.

"Make camp with what, Daryl?" Merle asked. "We ain't got shit now. We gotta find some damn where ta restock is what the hell we gotta do or we ain't gonna live half a damn week."

"Plenty a' places ta get shit," Daryl said. "People ain't exactly shoppin' no more."

Merle sucked his teeth.

"What damn people?" He asked. "We the only damn ones ain't dead yet. Trouble is…we gotta head into town for supplies if we gotta start from scratch an' I'm bettin' that's where the hell all them fuckers come from…an' I'm bettin' they ain't the last a' they kind."

Daryl didn't respond. He brought his thumb to his mouth, nipping at his cuticle in the manner that he'd done for as long as he could remember to comfort himself. It hurt his thumb, but even the pinpricks of pain did something to clear his mind and calm him down when he felt overwhelmed by things. It helped a little now too, though it certainly didn't go very far for solving the very real problems in front of them.

When Daryl heard a popping rumble from outside the truck, he had no idea what it was. It had been some time since they'd heard the sounds of the good, reliable government blowing Atlanta to bits and pieces, so he didn't think that's what it was, but it was an odd sound in a world that had so suddenly become so very silent.

"What the hell is that?" Daryl asked.

Merle looked at him. His facial expression told Daryl that he heard it too, but he clearly didn't know what it was. Merle turned around, looking behind them out of the back window of the truck.

"What the hell is that?" Merle asked.

Daryl chuckled.

"That's what the fuck I asked you!" He declared.

He let up on the gas pedal, the truck really moving at a crawl anyway and slowing even more now. It wasn't like they had the gas to speed and it wasn't like they had anywhere to be in a hurry anyway.

"Ho-oly shi-it!" Merle declared.

And he laughed. He laughed so heartily and in such a loud burst that Daryl jerked at the shock of the sound.

But as soon as he looked in the rearview mirror, he knew what the hell it was that Merle was laughing at. And he laughed too.

He cranked down the window of the truck as quickly as he could when he saw the bike swerve to go around him. She let up on her speed, which had been considerably faster than theirs, enough to scream some profanity at Daryl. He only caught that each of them should fuck themselves and then fuck each other.

"We thought you was dead!" Daryl yelled at her.

"No fucking thanks to you!" She responded.

"Don't wreck my damn bike you cunt!" Merle shouted at her with a laugh.

And her response was to open up the bike to a faster speed and dip in front of Daryl, threatening to disappear.

"What the hell is she doing?" Daryl asked.

Merle chuckled.

"I don't know…but follow the bitch. I want my damn bike back," Merle growled. "Can't believe she'd steal the shit…"

Daryl laughed.

"We left her behind…we left the bike behind," Daryl said. "Reckon she figured it was fair."

He put his foot to the gas pedal and followed behind Alice, unsure where she was going or if she even had a single clue where the hell she was going. She rode, though, like it wasn't her first time on a bike, and she rode with enough determination to have convinced him that she knew where the hell she was leading them, though he knew that she was wandering just as much as they were.

He was surprised, though, when she made an odd swerve in the road, and then turned off. He turned off quickly, following behind her down a side road, and it didn't take him long to see what had gotten her attention.

Driving down the road was another truck…a delivery truck or van of some kind…and Alice had fallen in right behind it.

"Who the fuck is that?" Merle muttered, probably not really expecting a response.

"Hell if I know," Daryl responded.

"Where the hell are we goin'?" Merle asked, probably not expecting a response to that either.

"Looks like we 'bout ta find out," Daryl responded. "'Cause she ain't lettin' up…an' we ain't leavin' her ass again."

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**AN: So there you go, the next chapter we meet the quarry group (or rather my version of the quarry group for this fic)!**


	6. Chapter 6

Daryl thought briefly about the possibility of being shot as they rode up on the clearly established little camp around a rock quarry. He hoped that a woman openly leading them in on a motorcycle might deter them from being killed, but he wasn't entirely positive that would be the case.

It was clear from the state of tents, laundry hanging out to dry, an RV, and vehicles parked around that there were at least a handful of people here.

Daryl pulled the truck to a stop when he saw that the truck they were following stopped. Alice stopped the motorcycle and got off, leaving it in the same condition as she'd found it back where they'd left them both behind. Daryl and Merle spilled out the truck and Daryl found Alice before he saw anyone get out of the truck and caught her around the shoulder.

"We thought you were dead," he offered, smiling in spite of himself to see that he'd been wrong.

"No thanks to you assholes and I would have been," Alice responded.

She was filthy, clear signs of having come up against her fair share of Walkers, but she was standing and that's all that mattered at the moment.

Merle came around, joining them with nothing more than a swift, hard knock on the back for Alice and some muttered comment about what he'd do to her if she fucked up his motorcycle, and then they saw a young Asian man drop out of the truck in front of them.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked.

"Could ask you the same thing," Daryl responded. "I'm Daryl…this here's Alice…an' that's Merle, my brother."

The Asian man looked perplexed. He looked back, deeper into their camp, but at the moment no one had made it there to come to his rescue.

"I'm Glenn, but I'm not in charge here," he said.

"Then we want to see whoever's in charge," Alice offered. "I'm a doctor…we're looking for a nice place to stay. We might be able to offer a trade of services."

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Remembering the names of everyone in the quarry would have been impossible for Daryl given the amount of time that they'd had to get to know them. The group had a tent to spare and a few blankets and one sleeping bag. Daryl set the tent up and spread the sleeping bag out so that it covered the entirety of the tent floor and let Alice go about arranging the blankets for the three of them to sleep in the tent together.

"I'm sure we could find you something more suitable the next time that Glenn goes into Atlanta," the skinny woman that looked almost like an exotic bird to Daryl had offered when he'd come out of the tent from spreading out the sleeping bag.

"This is better'n we're used to," Daryl said. "Reckon we'll manage."

"We'll be cooking soon," she said. "There's not always a lot to eat, but we do our best and Glenn brought a decent amount of supplies back."

Daryl nodded.

"We'll hunt," he offered. "We aim ta pull our own weight around here. We aren't lookin' for charity past tonight."

Alice came bounding up a few moments later and stepped around the bird woman.

"The…uh…the woman with the clothes," Alice said. "She had some stuff we can change into and we've got soap. I'm not sleeping with BO tonight."

"That's Carol," the bird woman offered. "I'm Lori."

Daryl tried his best to record the names into his mind, but it was going to take more than one introduction and a couple of hours to know who the hell anyone was there. The excitement of the day, now over, had also left him ready to sleep and it had left him fuzzier in the brain than he wanted to admit.

He reached and took the stuff out of Alice's arms.

"Let's go get washed," he said.

And Alice, speaking a quick thanks to Lori for the supplies she'd probably already thanked Carol for, followed Daryl down to the water.

In one far corner of the water, they'd done their best to set up something of a bathing house. Really it was more or less shower curtains on poles rammed into the ground. Daryl stepped into the area and stripped down, washing himself with the soap while he listened to the sounds around him and tried not to be aware of the fact that anyone with half a mind to see it could see his bare ass.

He, Alice, and Merle had learned to be comfortable with each other's nudity…but that had come from necessity and quarters that were tighter than anyone had ever desired. He wasn't anxious, however, to share everything he had with everyone around.

When he was done bathing, he found Alice and Merle sitting near each other in the edge of the water and bitching over something that was probably idiotic. He threw the soap at them and watched as Alice dived into the water after it while Merle howled something about it being Ivory soap and floating if she'd stop splashing around like a drowning cat.

They were both idiots in their own way, but Daryl was relieved that both of them had survived the day.

He carried his clothes up toward his tent, trying not to make eye contact with the people that were making him uncomfortable by staring far too hard at him…probably judging him just like everyone else had done, and he very nearly ran into the small woman that Alice had taken to calling the laundry lady.

"I can take those," she offered. "Wash them for you and tomorrow they'll be ready to go."

Daryl tried not to notice that her arms were speckled with bruises that he knew had to be the result of hands grabbing far too roughly on skin. He wondered if it had been a Walker, but his gut told him it hadn't been. He nodded slightly and offered her the clothes.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Carol," she said.

"Carol…" he repeated. "I'm Daryl."

"I know," she said with a quick smile. "I'm good with names."

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"Damned uncomfortable," Merle growled when they were alone in their tent.

Daryl might have imagined his brother was referring to the state of the tent or even the hard ground beneath them that they could feel through the sleeping bag and the flimsy tent floor, but he knew better. Merle was no stranger to sleeping in uncomfortable situations and he wouldn't have bothered to waste his breath bitching about something that he would have insisted only a little bitch would have complained about.

Merle was bitching about the new group that they'd found themselves in the middle of.

They'd eaten off from the others, not really feeling welcome to join any of the small groups bunched around low burning fires. The rest of the people hadn't warmed up to them yet, which was more than to be expected, especially given the fact that Merle could be awful hard to warm up to, and it was a pretty uncomfortable situation.

It felt like the three of them were some kind of sideshow at a circus with the way they were being watched…the way they were being stared at by everyone.

"Tomorrow'll be different," Daryl offered. "We'll hunt…Alice here'll offer ta patch some damn body up…we'll show 'em we're worth our salt an' they'll back the fuck off us."

"Lookin' at us like we're damned criminals," Merle muttered back.

"An' you ain't never done no time?" Daryl asked.

Merle didn't respond.

"Daryl's right," Alice said from where she was lying crammed between the two of them. "Tomorrow will be different. We'll walk around. We'll talk to everyone…we'll find our place. Before you know it, we'll be part of the group, just the same as everyone else is."

Merle scoffed in the darkness.

"We ain't gonna fit here," he growled. "Not me an' Daryl. You might…they'll prob'ly be your society. Your people…that it?"

Alice chuckled.

"What the hell, Merle? I thought you were my people?" Alice responded. "I'm hurt…I thought we were sticking together in this. You know, especially after your worthless ass left me for dead."

"Thought you was dead," Daryl remarked, feeling strangely like a broken record. "We ain't leavin' ya ass again."

"Was in a bad damn way," Merle commented. "Wouldn'ta left my bike given the choice…you didn't say you'd ridden bikes before."

"You never asked," Alice responded back. "Shows you what making assumptions does."

"Fuck you," Merle hissed. "Don't you touch that shit again…I'ma kick ya ass you…"

"Shut the fuck up! Both of ya! Damn it!" Daryl spat. "I don't wanna hear ya bitchin' back and forth. That ain't gonna exactly keep people from starin' at us with the two a' you goin' at it all damn day long back and forth. I'ma beat the hell outta both of ya!"

Silence. There was silence for one precious moment in the tent. Then it was followed by Alice's laughter which inspired Merle to actually snort a little to himself.

"You know what the hell we oughta do," Merle commented. "We oughta clean this damn place out. Fuckers gonna look at us like damn criminals, we oughta be criminals. Get the hell outta here an' haul everything we can take with us. Wait'll that damn cop guy ain't lookin' an' knock his ass out or wait'll he leaves for some shit."

"An' the others?" Daryl asked. "What the hell we do with them, Merle? The women an' children? Shoot 'em?"

Merle chuckled.

"Hell…ever' damn one a' us picks us a piece a pussy…you want you a young'un grab it…we'll take that shit too. Hit the road an' be damn near into the sunset 'fore anyone even thinks about doin' somethin' about it," Merle remarked.

Daryl knew that Merle wasn't wholly sincere. He wasn't wholly insincere either.

Merle didn't like being judged too much. He'd been judged all his life, just the same as Daryl, and it had a way of getting under his skin. When he was out of his skull on drugs, his inability to act like he should in the face of someone "disrespecting him" had landed him in a few spots that caused him to be even more disrespected. Clean, though, he could think through things a little better. He'd shoot off at the mouth, and even make plans for things they weren't likely to do like rob the quarry and run off with all their shit and their women, but at least he wasn't as likely to act on things when he was sober.

"We ain't robbin' shit, Merle," Daryl responded. "We're gonna do whatever the hell we gotta do…live with these damn people…"

"How the hell long you wanna do that, Daryl? Followin' around that arrogant ass cop?" Merle asked.

"However long it keeps our asses alive," Daryl muttered. "Right now all the hell I wanna do is sleep."

"Daryl's got a point," Alice offered. "We should stay with them. There's strength in numbers and they're clearly doing better than we were doing on our own. When we got here we didn't have anything…what? We've got a few weapons, but that was it. Now we've got something of a roof over our heads and we ate tonight…my clothes actually don't smell for once in a long time."

"You do smell awful damn nice, sugah…" Merle hummed in the darkness.

"Get that off my leg, Merle, if you want to keep it," Alice snapped back.

Daryl chuckled.

"Fuckin' shit! Go ta sleep!" He commented again, suddenly feeling like he was raising two toddlers.

His outburst got a giggled from Alice and another snort from Merle.

But they did fall silent and it wasn't long before Merle was snoring and Alice was shoving around, complaining about his snoring and trying to root her way into his body or Daryl's for whatever comfort she was seeking there.

And Daryl closed his eyes, wondering even as he fell asleep what might end up coming of this new group and all the faces that flickered and danced behind his eyelids with names he couldn't match to them.

At least, though, it got them off the road long enough to regroup and get themselves together again.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**I'll throw in a sort of general trigger warning. Carol is with Ed for a while here so that means that all Ed warnings apply. Domestic abuse/mentions of domestic abuse, etc. are possible and likely throughout the time that Ed is with us.**

**I'd also like to say that I'm going to be taking this story pretty much off path from the show. That means that there may be some things that are familiar from the show, but there will be a lot more that just aren't. **

**I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think! **

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As soon as Daryl woke up he took his crossbow and crawled out of the tent. Alice was still asleep, but he figured he'd leave her there for the moment. It was likely the best sleep she'd had in some time.

When he came out it didn't take him long to find Merle. He was sitting down by the water, his feet in the water, watching the women across the way that were washing clothes and chatting among themselves.

"Merle!" Daryl barked as he neared the water. "Merle! Get'cha ass up. Let's go get some meat."

He didn't know if the place had roles or if people had jobs that they were supposed to be doing, but nothing had been assigned to them if that was the case and they had little more to offer to this group than the fact that they might be able to bring back some food.

Merle got up from where he was sitting and made a wide circle around the quarry sides until he finally reached Daryl, scratching at mosquito bite on his neck that he'd already scratched the blood out of.

"What the hell we gonna hunt 'round here?" Merle asked. "Fuckin' camp like this? Ain't nothin' worth eatin' within' five miles."

"Guess we goin' five miles out," Daryl declared. "We can't stay here an' expect not ta pull our weight."

Merle nodded and swiped at the bite that he realized was bleeding now.

"Where the fuck's Alice?" Merle asked.

"Sleepin'," Daryl responded. "Let her lie, I say. We ain't leavin', just huntin'. We'll come on back for her."

Merle nodded and made his way back up toward the tent. Daryl stood outside it while Merle stepped in, as quietly as he probably could, and came out with his boots and a knife.

"You gonna run up an' stab some damn deer in the head?" Daryl asked.

Merle chuckled and plopped down on the ground to put his boots on.

"Fuck, Derlina…ain't got no ammo for that gun no more," Merle said. "You gonna shoot it an' I'm gonna keep ya sorry fuckin' ass from gettin' chewed the fuck up."

Merle started scratching again and Daryl realized now that Merle might be scratching at mosquito bites, there were certainly enough opportunities for them to be leaving bites since Daryl was half eat up himself, but he was more than likely scratching at a lot of phantom itches.

He was detoxing…and that was a sure fire way for Merle to start clawing his skin off to try to reach the itches that really weren't even there. Getting him away from the camp would be a good idea at any rate, whether or not they brought any meat back.

As Merle was getting up from putting his boots on, Alice crawled over and stuck her head out the tent.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"We goin' huntin'," Daryl responded. "You stay here…we comin' back for ya."

"How long will you be gone?" Alice asked.

"'Til we get the fuck back," Merle spat.

Daryl shot her something of an apologetic look and Merle scratched more at the phantom itches, picking for himself another spot on his arm that he seemed determined to scrub until the point that it bled. Alice looked at Merle and then back at Daryl, nodding her head slightly. She knew what was happening to Merle too.

"We'll be back," Daryl repeated. "Keep armed…don't get killed."

Alice crawled all the way out of the tent and stood to her full height, scratching her fingers quickly through her hair.

"Yeah…you don't get killed either," she said. "Looks like I'm probably going to be doing some laundry…I do love domesticity."

Daryl nodded at her, not fully understanding the comment she closed out with a chuckle, and started toward the wooded area with Merle behind him.

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"Maybe we got off to a bad start," Alice commented as she approached the bunch of women who seemed to be staring at her but not really trying to communicate with her in any way or hold any kind of prolonged eye contact. "My name's Dr. Alice Walker. I answer to Alice, Al, asshole…anything really will do."

"Did you sleep well?" The laundry lady asked.

"You are?" Alice asked.

"Carol," Carol said. "Sorry…"

"It's alright," Alice said. "And yeah. I can't complain. I slept better than I've slept in a while. I'm sorry, I'm bad with names. Who are the rest of you?"

She got the round robin of names from them: Andrea, Lori, Amy, Jacqui…throw in Carol and those were her new companions.

"Nice to meet you all," Alice said, plopping down on the dirt by Jacqui's side. "Anything I can do to help?"

The woman named Lori got up.

"You can fall into my place if you'd like," she offered. "I've…I've got a few things that I need to do. I'll check on the children."

Alice slid into Lori's place and watched as the overly thin woman walked back up toward the main part of the camp. She fell in, not feeling entirely welcome yet, to scrubbing clothes with others, trying to copy what they were doing to assure herself that she was going to get things done well enough to perhaps win herself some sort of end of the world girl scout badge.

"Did you all know each other before this?" Alice asked.

"Amy's my little sister," Andrea offered.

Alice glanced up and searched for whatever resemblance she could find between the two. One was dramatically older than the other, clearly showing someone in the family was a surprise, but there was something of a resemblance there. It was as much as Alice had ever shared with her sister.

"Did the rest of you know each other? Or was it all just happy coincidence that you met?" Alice asked.

"No," Jacqui offered finally. "We didn't know each other. We met on the highway outside Atlanta. We've been here since they started bombing Atlanta."

Alice nodded her head.

When she heard someone bark Carol's name, Alice looked around. The man that was apparently Carol's husband, though she still didn't know his name, was trying to get the woman's attention. Carol scrambled to her feet, tossing something of an apology out to the other women who weren't quite as talented as she was at scrubbing clothes on rocks and scrub boards and scurried off in the direction of where the dirty asshole that Alice was pretty sure was a wife beater was waiting.

Carol gone, Alice shifted again and slipped closer to her spot, easing closer to the other women.

"Do we just pretend that we don't know what kind of man he is?" Alice asked.

She glanced around at the other women. No one was making eye contact with her. It was difficult to tell at this point if they were avoiding her eyes because they just didn't want her in their inner sanctum or if it was because she was threatening to call out the fact that Carol was wearing fresh bruises on all the visible parts of her body…and that meant that there was no telling how bad the parts they couldn't see looked.

"Yep? That's what we're doing?" Alice asked, deciding to talk to herself if no one else was going to chat with her. "That's fine…but it's pretty evident."

"You know," Andrea shot back at her, surprising Alice enough that she dropped the shirt she was untwisting from the tangled mess it had become, "I would think that you would respect the fact that she doesn't want it mentioned."

Alice cocked an eyebrow at the blonde.

"I respect her right to talk about it or not talk about it," Alice responded, "whatever she wants. But I think that kind of shit needs to be called out. He won't stop just because no one's talking about it."

Andrea looked at her like she had horns and scoffed.

"I don't think it's right, but what are we going to do? Put him in jail?" Andrea asked.

Alice curled her lip at the woman.

"Why are you crawling my ass?" Alice asked. "I don't even know you. No…I don't think we can put him jail, but we could do something."

She stopped, checked her temper, and shook her head. Finally she sighed and felt she could continue speaking with a clearer mind.

"I just can't tolerate that kind of thing," Alice said. "I wasn't trying to get off on the wrong foot. I don't know what the hell we'd do to the asshole these days. Unless shooting him's not out of the question."

That earned her a laugh, at least, from the woman who had identified herself as Jacqui.

"You know," Andrea said, "I don't support it either, but I'm really surprised that someone like you would be saying something like that…it's not like we can't see what kind of man your husband is. Which one is it?"

Alice wrinkled her nose in confusion at the woman. Clearly she was off to a bad start with the blonde, that much was evident to anyone even paying the slightest bit of attention, but she was also beginning to think that the woman might be suffering from heat stroke or something.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Which one's your husband?" Andrea asked. "Which one…"

Andrea dropped her voice.

"Hit you or whatever," she muttered.

It took Alice a moment, but finally all the pieces started to fall into place for her. She wondered now if the busted lip that she'd suffered, and kept busting back open one way or another, hadn't healed yet.

"I'm not married to either of them," Alice declared. "I'd be more interested in you and charming personality than either of them. And if you're referring to my lip, it was Merle. But he didn't mean to hit me."

Andrea smirked and rolled her eyes slightly and Alice laughed in response to it.

"OK, he meant to hit me, but if you want to know the nitty gritty of my business, he was strung out on something," Alice said. "So he meant to hit me, but he didn't mean to hit me. And I hit him back…knocked him out. That good enough for you?"

"You don't owe me anything," Andrea said.

"I don't, you're right," Alice said. "I'm just trying to give you what you want. It's clear I'm the odd girl out at this little sorority party. I'm just trying to rush…you let me know when I've done enough."

"You don't have to do anything to fit in here," Jacqui said quickly. "We're not trying to exclude you. It's just hard to get used to new people…"

"Thank you," Alice said. "And I appreciate that. I'm getting used to a lot of new people myself, so I can understand the sentiment."

"Did you lose all your family?" Amy asked.

Alice laughed ironically to herself and nodded her head.

"Yeah…I guess I did," she said. "I was working in a hospital in Atlanta. Everything broke out and we held our posts. We didn't know what was happening. I still don't. They came in while I was there. They started shooting everyone…everyone. I got out with a group of people and we just ran. Not one of us even knew where the fuck we were running…we were just trying to get the hell out of Dodge. A while later they were all dead and I ran into Merle and Daryl. I was overcome by their charming personalities and, well, here we are. So yeah. All the family I've got? You're looking at it."

Alice felt Jacqui's hand weigh on her shoulder, the first sign of affection from any of these people that there had been. She reached her hand up and covered Jacqui's with her own as a sign of thanks.

"We're all family now," Jacqui offered quietly. "That's the best we can do."

Alice saw Andrea make some kind of gesture with her head and she leaned forward and stretched out a hand, touching Andrea on the shoulder so that the blonde looked at her.

"I'm especially excited about being related to you," Alice said with a wink.

And she was pleased when Andrea gave into it and smiled at her in response, the smile breaking into something of a soft chuckle a moment later.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**Warnings for violence and abuse ahead.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Alice had been lying awake for what felt like days. The only reason she knew it hadn't been that long was simply because the sun had failed to rise again.

She could drown out Merle's snoring and his occasional curses thrown at no one and everything when he woke. If she could keep him away from the drugs she'd found in the motorcycle and tossed out into the woods when he wasn't looking, he would be detoxed before long. She'd only kept what she knew could be used for medicinal purposes, and those were hidden too.

She could also drown out Daryl's thrashing around and curses spat at her and Merle and maybe at whatever gods he was calling out to because the tent was crowded, uncomfortable, and for whatever reason it smelled.

She could drown out a lot of things, but what she couldn't drown out was what she already knew to be the sounds coming from the tent of Carol and the dirty, sweaty, ass of a man that she was apparently married to.

From what Alice could hear, he was unhappy. She imagined he'd never been happy in his life.

She could hear that in his unhappiness, he was making Carol unhappy too, but each time she dared to make any noise suggesting her displeasure with his asshole nature, his unhappiness grew…and so did hers.

And what further pissed Alice off was that she knew that the girl was in the tent with all of this going on and that was causing her to squirm and itch until she almost felt as miserable with the world as Merle did right now. She'd never been very good at minding her own business and she knew that.

Alice sat up and wormed her way toward the exit of the tent, heaving a sigh as she did. She could hear that Daryl was moving about now.

"The hell is wrong with you?" He asked. "You gotta piss again?"

"No," she hissed back at him. "Can you not hear that? Am I really the only one that can hear what the hell is happening in that damn tent?"

"What?" Daryl asked.

"That asshole is beating his wife," Alice responded.

"What you want me ta do about it?" Daryl asked. "It's better ta mind your own business. You'll just make it worse if you go over there an' start runnin' your mouth."

"Not if I kill him," Alice said, matter of factly.

Daryl laughed. He didn't realize that she was serious.

"I'm serious, Daryl," Alice said. "What are they going to do?"

"Kill you back, I reckon," Daryl commented.

"I have the right to a fair trial," Alice said.

"You lost your damn mind?" Daryl responded.

"I'm working on it," Alice said. "Daryl…that little girl is over there. She's in that tent. That little girl is seeing that man beat her mother…he might hurt her too."

Silence came from her companion and if she hadn't been sure that he was awake she might have thought that he'd gone and fallen asleep again.

"Whatta you want me ta do about it, Al?" The response came back. Daryl's voice sounded a little different than Alice was used to and she couldn't put her finger on what had changed exactly and she certainly didn't know why.

"I want you to stop it," she said.

"I can't do that," Daryl said. "We kill him and they'll kill us."

Alice wasn't going to take that for an answer when she heard another of the pathetic noises coming from the tent. This was a world where people died every day. It was a world where she'd seen good people torn apart by walking corpses. It was a world where she couldn't imagine being put to death for simply getting rid of some asshole who really, really deserved it.

So she crawled out of the tent, dragging her knife behind her.

"Where the hell are you goin'?" Daryl spat at her just as she straightened herself up.

"If you want do it, I will," Alice said.

"Merle…" Daryl called back into the tent. Alice could hear them as she made her way across the dirt of the camp toward the tent where hell was going on to the point that the occupants were unaware of what was happening outside of their space. "Merle…Al's gonna get her ass killed…come on…"

"Don't give a damn," Alice heard Merle respond and she laughed to herself even as she continued her trek, not entirely sure what she was going to do when she got to the tent.

When she did reach the tent, Alice stopped just outside of it, didn't turn back to see if there was a Dixon brother coming to help her out or not, and took a deep breath. She grabbed the tent flap and flung it open, releasing more of the noise into the night than the flap had kept muffled.

She poked her head in but kept her eyes closed for a moment. The tent that this "family" shared was smaller than the one her family shared, but all the occupants of the space were awake and they were clearly surprised by her intrusion.

The man barked out something about why the hell she was there and Alice opened her eyes, scanning first the terrified face of the child and then the face of the woman who looked equally terrified but wore the marks of the noises Alice had been trying to ignore all night.

"I heard you like hitting women," Alice responded, sucking in a breath and hoping that she knew what the hell she was doing, though she doubted it. "Consequently…some women like hitting back."

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By the time that Daryl covered the ground, which was really not very long at all, between the two tents, hell had already broken loose. They were starting to draw something of an audience too, though people were just hissing back and forth in the darkness, none of them wanting to come out for this anymore than they'd wanted to come out for the noises beforehand.

Daryl reached the tent in time to see one part of it crashing down from the chaos of all the bodies inside. He made his way into it far enough to find the little girl in the chaos, not even knowing what her name was, and very nearly jerk her out of it. He somewhat flung her into the darkness and out of the direct line of fighting that was taking place, assuring himself that she wouldn't get trampled in what looked to be some kind of confused lock up where the man throwing punches didn't likely know where they were going.

Daryl knew he didn't know where they coming from either, but as soon as he really opened his ears and let himself hear the screams, now coming from two women though they were of a different nature, he couldn't help but react.

It brought back too many memories. It brought back too many bad memories. And what fueled his anger even more than knowing that the man didn't care about what he was doing to his wife was the threats that he was throwing at her combined with the ones he was throwing at Alice.

And to make it worse, there was the sound of her apologies. Her apologies and her begging thundered in Daryl's ears.

The begging was not to hurt him. The begging was not to make it worse, no matter what words she used, because every bruise on his body the abuser would take out on his victim tenfold. The begging was for him not to be angry at her for something she had as little control over as how many times the Earth spun around.

And the apologies were all the same, no matter the scenario. The apologies were the sound of the abused begging telling their monster that they were sorry…sorry for so many things…sorry for living…sorry for making them act like a brute and an animal.

The sounds burned deep in Daryl's gut until he felt the animal in himself surge out and he reached into the tent again, yanking out the woman that he could get his hands on and slinging her into the darkness with her child and away from the fight at hand. He expected her to leave his grasp as freely as the girl did, but when he felt her body stop abruptly he turned quickly enough to notice that his brother was there, silent but likely burning with the same fire of memory that Daryl was burning with, and that he'd stopped her body to move her more smoothly toward the cowering girl.

All the other assholes were staying stuck in their tents as though they were stone cold deaf to everything that was happening. All the other assholes were playing well the role of the neighbors that saw but never did anything more than offer sympathetic and sometimes judgmental looks. They were playing the roles of the neighbors that whispered to each other but never called the police.

And even the policeman there was playing well his role of sticking his head in the ground and turning a blind eye to this in favor of spending more quality time grunting around in his tent like a pig with the bird woman.

The fire burned in Daryl to the point that when he went in the third time into the tent he connected with the man before he even got Alice out of the way. He hoped she had enough sense of self-preservation to get herself out of the way and out of the tent that was trying desperately to be torn down around them once he locked up with the man whose name he didn't even know and used his energy to take out all the aggression he'd never taken out on others before on the single person available to him now.

Somewhere in the confusion, the tent either came down or they made their way out of it because Daryl became aware of the fact that he could feel the breeze blowing around him even as he was unaware of even the details of how the fight in the darkness was progressing.

Around him were sounds…all of them muffled now by the pounding in his ears and his strange sense of pride that the asshole had landed only two or so punches for as long as they'd been fighting, which felt like an eternity. The man wasn't much of a fighter if his victims knew how to hold their own in a brawl.

It was Merle that finally got them apart, and it was Merle who delivered the final blow that rendered the man unconscious. It was Merle that pulled Daryl to his feet and spoke words to him that he wasn't even ready to focus on enough to understand at the moment.

His head pounding, Daryl became aware of the fact that they'd destroyed the tent for all intents and purposes and that the man he'd been fighting was either unconscious or dead on the ground.

Alice had found her way out of the space as he'd hoped she would and she was clinging to the woman and the girl, all three wrapped up together, while the woman cried and said words that Daryl doubted anyone could understand and the girl tried desperately to hold onto her mother and soothe her for the trauma she'd endured.

And slowly the others were coming out of their tents and into the darkness, their lamps swinging like fireflies swarming toward him.

"Tie the fucker up," Merle growled. "Deal with his sorry ass come fuckin' daylight."

And Daryl wondered if Alice had been right about the chance at a fair trial for any of them in the world that they found themselves in now, because if she hadn't, the lynching mob was coming for them…and he was probably the guiltiest of them all at this point.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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The sun was just coming up and Daryl knew that no one had slept more than a few moments. He'd already taken his round in the RV with Alice doctoring up his busted knuckles and musing over the possible bruises on his "pretty face" as she said while she stared back at him with the crusted blood drying on her own.

She'd doctored up the woman, Carol, and her daughter and then she'd left the little girl sleeping in the RV with her mother to keep watch over her in case she might have nightmares surrounding all of the chaos.

And the man that had caused all the problems was tied up at the moment and stored in the tent they'd torn down and put back up to keep him out of sight and out of mind.

They weren't being lynched, but they might not be able to say that as time went on. There had been a good deal of whispering and hushed conversations that got coupled with sideways glances in their directions.

Part of the group was supposed to be going on some kind of run today and they were being delayed by the now obvious problem of what to do with the man that was yelling through his gag and trying to escape his tent prison.

"I think we oughta just shoot the fucker an' be done with it," Merle muttered from where he was sitting near Daryl in the dirt, leaning against the tire of the RV.

"With what, Merle?" Daryl asked as he watched his brother examine his gun. "You ain't got no damn bullets an' I don't think they gonna let me just go an' get my damn crossbow ta put an end ta this asshole. Prob'ly ain't our place no way."

"Prob'ly not," Merle muttered. "Made it our fuckin' business, though. You know good an' damn well he'll kill that woman he gets his hand on her again."

"I ain't lettin' that happen," Daryl responded.

Merle chuckled to himself.

"Got yaself a hard on for her, lil' brotha?" Merle mused.

Daryl rolled his eyes.

"How can you be so damn disgustin' right now? They might shoot us, Merle…Alice…they might run us all up an' down the damn fence for this shit," Daryl said. "There's a lot more of them than they is of us," Daryl said.

"That's why the hell I wanna shoot the fucker," Merle mused. "If I'm goin'…he's sure as shit goin' with me. That's all the hell I gotta say about it."

Daryl was confident that wasn't all that Merle had to say about it. As far as he knew, Merle had never said everything he had to say on any subject whatsoever. Merle always had plenty more to say, all he needed was the opportunity to say it or a willing ear to listen to it.

Daryl heard the sound of the RV door swing open and Alice stepped down the steps of the thing. She walked around and kneeled down in front of where he was sitting like she was stooping down to talk to a small child.

"What the hell have you heard?" She asked.

"You mean besides Merle's big ass mouth?" Daryl asked.

Merle chuckled and Alice echoed it.

"Are they gonna shoot us? Hang us? What's our sentence?" Alice asked, her voice cooler than anyone's voice probably should be when asking such a question in full sincerity.

Daryl shrugged.

"Hell…I can't hear shit they're sayin' an' when I got up ta piss about half an hour ago they damn near killed each other tryin' ta stampeded away from our asses," Daryl said. "I figure the best that's comin' outta this is we hit the damn road."

Alice stayed in her stooped position a moment, considered this information and nodded her head definitely.

"Good," she said. "Fine."

She stood up straight.

"Carol and Sophia are going with us," she said.

Daryl cocked an eyebrow at her.

"The hell you on about?" He asked.

Alice shrugged.

"We leave, they're going with us," Alice said. "If we don't kill him, I'm not leaving them here with him. And if we do kill him and they run us out? Who have they got?"

"Damn…" Merle muttered. "Both of ya got a damn hard on for her."

He laughed to himself.

"This is gonna be a damn dick measurin' contest if ever there was one," he said, still examining the empty gun in his hand.

"Fuck you, Merle," Daryl spat, Alice's voice blending with his as she muttered the same words. Merle chuckled.

They didn't have much time to discuss anything else because it seemed that whatever conversation the others was having was ending. They were breaking out of the football hurdle they'd formed at a distance and heading in the direction of where Daryl and Merle were sitting. The only ones absent at the moment from that group were the young blonde girl, though Daryl couldn't remember her name, and the boy.

The black man and the police officer swung their steps toward the tent where the man was tied up and appeared half dragging him and half leading him out, the hobbles Merle had made for him making it difficult for him to really walk if he wanted to, a few moments later. They brought him not too far from where Merle and Daryl remained sitting, Alice leaning against the RV between them.

Alice didn't say anything. She walked around Daryl and went up the RV steps, disappearing inside. She appeared a few moments later leading Carol who looked horrified as she clung to Alice's hand and let her lead her down to the ground. The girl apparently wasn't going to be present for all of this either, whatever it might be that happened.

"We don't know you," Shane, the police officer, said. "We don't know any of you. You invited yourselves into our camp and since then you've started a fight with Ed. What are we supposed to do about this?"

"Kill 'im," Merle commented.

The man's muffled protests didn't need to be clearly heard to know that they combined profanity with the pleas even the most worthless of individuals would make for their sorry lives.

And Daryl flinched, his gut turning almost, at the sound of the battered woman cry out, her cries muffled by Alice wrapping her up in something of a bear hug.

"We don't just kill people," Shane commented, though Daryl wasn't sure that his words went with his tone of voice or his facial expression.

This was a world where they were going to struggle with what was right and what was wrong when the old law didn't stand any longer. Where did they draw the line?

"If we start killing people…who are we?" The blonde woman asked.

No one had a response for it. It was clear that for all their hushed whispering, the group that had huddled together hadn't really arrived at any point of agreement. Every one of them looked like they wanted to speak now but none of them seemed to dare to do so.

"Maybe it'd be best if you just moved on," Shane offered. "Go back wherever the hell you came from or go on to wherever the hell you're going."

Merle got to his feet and Daryl followed suit.

"We justa damn buncha road dogs anyway," Merle said. "Do us just damn fine ta hit the road again."

"Fine," Daryl offered, echoing the sentiments of his brother. "Don't matter ta us. We'll move out right now. Leave you an' yours alone. Al? Get the girl?"

The tied up man protested as Alice started to move, not removing her arms from around the woman who was caught between protesting, crying, and wanting to give into the support being offered to her by the brunette woman who had voluntarily lead the charge into the tent only hours before.

"Wait!" Bird woman called out. "You can't just take people. Carol…do you want to go with these people?"

Daryl glanced, not sure what was happening or what to do, at the direction of the bruised woman. She looked terrified, but not as terrified as she had the night before.

She stuttered out something and Daryl saw her clearly flinch when the tied up man crawled forward a little on his knees.

"Carol…you don't know them," bird woman insisted. "They're…they could be dangerous."

"We are dangerous," Alice said with all sincerity. "Just as dangerous as you are."

The tied up man continued his muffled protests and the police officer reached over and ripped free the choking gag that they'd created. The man spit out something and Daryl realized it was underwear…most likely dirty…that his brother had crammed into the man's mouth before tying the gag. He almost laughed when he heard Merle chuckling behind.

"Son of a bitch! I'll kill your ass! Every damn one of you! You get the hell away from my wife and my daughter!" The man spat.

"You care about them so much, you should have shown it," Alice spat back.

Daryl wished he was close enough to slap her in the back of the head for having as little knowledge as Merle of when to shut the fuck up.

But he didn't have time to say anything because he cringed again when he heard the woman she was clinging to start to cry again and insist that she was sorry.

And then the snarling asshole on the ground turned his attention to her and spat words at her that Daryl could almost hear coming out of his mouth with the same voice his old man had used to throw the same insults at his mother…words that had come to him early enough he was sure that he was still "draggin' on the teat" as Merle would have said.

She was a whore. She was a bitch. He would teach her. He would talk with her later.

Daryl never heard the whole whirlwind of words that mixed with her crying and her protests that she was sorry. He never heard everything the man had to say.

And neither did everyone else.

Because everyone in the camp jumped at least a foot when the cracking sound of the pistol went off and then in the swimming passage of the next few seconds they were left trying to figure out what had happened in the aftermath of the crack and the hard thud of the man falling to the ground, his words silenced.

Merle's laugh rung out next and Daryl turned his head sharply toward his brother just as everyone else did. Standing over to the side, almost leaned against the RV where he'd been for the whole of the conversation, Merle was examining the gun in his hand.

"Whatta ya know," he commented. "Reckon I had a bullet left after all…ain't it my lucky damn day."

And with those words the shock began to break over everyone. Daryl saw as the police officer hurled himself at Merle, taking him to the ground suddenly, and Daryl went at the officer.

"Get the fuck off my brother!" Daryl insisted.

But he was caught too as the black man wrestled him back, no one apparently knowing what to do. Merle didn't fight with the officer, something Daryl hadn't been expecting at all. He allowed the man to roll him over and cuff him, leaving him lying there in the dirt, still chuckling to himself.

"Easy there officer," Merle called out. "Said I ain't had but one bullet left. Ain't no damn body else gotta die today."

Daryl panted and looked around, not fighting anymore against the man that held his arms behind his back. Alice was screaming something, though he couldn't make out what with it combining with the sounds of the other woman. Merle was on the ground waiting to find out what they'd do for him. Everyone else was standing around still in shock and not making a move without some kind of command being thrown out or a whistle being blown…sheep who couldn't act without direction.

And the man, who'd probably never brought a single decent thing into the world beyond the little girl who was shut up in the RV and hadn't tried to come out yet, was gone now from all the chaos that he'd left behind, what was left of his head leaking into the red Georgia clay not five feet from Daryl's boots.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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"You can't kill him!" Alice screamed out in the confusion at the cop that had drawn a gun not entirely unlike the empty one that Merle had shucked off to the side, useless to him now.

She couldn't tell if the cop had the balls to pull the trigger or not. He seemed to her to be the kind of man who would do a lot of shit on principle. He seemed to be the kind of man that needed to prove he had balls, whether simply to himself or to everyone else too.

Carol was clinging to her to the point that Alice almost felt choked. She was torn between trying to offer support to the woman who was trying to suck it out, along with the very oxygen she needed to live, of Alice's body and getting to the men that had become the only support system she had left in this sorry ass world.

She wrenched herself away from the woman as best she could, finally dragging her along with her to some degree, and went toward the man with the gun.

Merle was on the ground, on his knees, his hands cuffed behind his back and he was smiling. He was laughing at this. The asshole was laughing at the fact that if he leaned forward an inch and a half he'd have Barney Fife's gun touching his forehead.

"You gonna do it, go the fuck ahead," Merle growled. "Least I had the decency not ta let the sorry asshole know it was comin'…not just stand there waivin' it in his damn face."

Alice finally peeled out of the woman's grasp as the woman gave way to her knees and went down not far from Merle, clearly overwhelmed with the situation. Alice went straight to him and ignored the officer's words about getting out of the way.

She knelt down next to Merle and shook her head at the officer.

"You want to kill someone? I was the one that started it," she said. "So go ahead…"

He looked at her and she almost flinched at the fact that the man didn't look entirely stable. There was something in his eyes that made her uneasy. He raked his hand across his forehead and chuckled to himself.

"You want me to shoot you?" He asked incredulously.

Alice held her hands up toward him to demonstrate that her hands were free. She wasn't bound, she wasn't cuffed. She could have clawed and punched and fought if she wanted to.

But the truth was that she didn't want to. She was tired of the fighting and if she was going to be left behind anyway, she might as well lead the way into wherever the hell they ended up going from here…especially since she had a good inclination that they were all headed the same place for one reason or another.

She swallowed and put her hands behind her back.

"You want to kill who did it?" She asked. "Then don't be gutless about it. I'm not moving. I'll stay right here…I started it. Merle just finished what I couldn't because he had the gun."

"Al!" Daryl barked at her from where he was basically being held down by the full weight of the black man. "Al…get'cha fuckin' ass up…get the hell outta here they lettin' ya go."

"Why?" Alice called back. "Why let me go and not you two? Fuck that. Vagina laws don't apply here. Pull the fucking trigger you asshole!"

She crawled forward with her last words, anger rising up in place of the cold fear that she'd felt a few moments earlier.

And the shakiest gun in Georgia suddenly looked like he didn't have a damn clue what to do about any of it. Maybe it was Alice's declaration of going, if not alone, right alongside of Daryl and Merle, or maybe it was the crying of the woman crumpled on her knees, or maybe it was the protests of the others who were shocked and wanted no more death that did it. Whatever it was, though, he dropped the gun and then a moment later returned it to his holster.

Alice didn't move. She stayed on her knees watching him, panting to herself because the body has a way of reacting strangely when confronted with the end of its existence, until she saw him walk around and release the cuffs on Merle. Merle rubbed at his wrists, still chuckling, and then surprised Alice by wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into the first thing that even resembled a genuine hug that she'd ever received from Merle.

"Fuck you…you damn cunt," Merle grumbled just as he pulled away.

Daryl scrambled to his feet once he was released, but stayed in the same spot that he was, probably afraid to move in case this was some kind of trick that would be revealed by the execution of them all.

"Fuck," the policeman spat. "What do we do now?"

He turned around, making it clear that his words were directed at the people huddled behind him, all of them resembling barn owls more than people.

"I'll get a shovel," Glenn offered. "We should…bury Ed."

And just like that, it seemed that the sheep were content to follow the kid as he went for a shovel to bury the asshole.

Daryl came over and caught Alice under the elbow, heaving her roughly to her feet and then playfully closing a hand around her throat.

"I could kill ya ass for bein' a fuckin' idiot," he growled in her ear before he let go of her throat. She rubbed at it, knowing that he hadn't meant his grasp on her to be as strong as it was. Beyond the exterior he was putting on, she'd felt the quick tremors running through his hands…tremors he'd try to hide because he'd have never wanted to admit that he was just as close to pissing himself as she'd been.

"I guess we should pack up," Alice said. "I think we've worn out our welcome here."

"Ain't never had no fuckin' welcome here," Daryl muttered. "Let's get the hell outta here."

Alice walked over to where Carol was on the ground, sobbing into her hands, and reached down to pull her up. Carol came willingly enough, her knees faltering slightly as she gained her feet, and she sunk into Alice, wrapping her arms around her.

"What do I do?" Carol asked, her voice coming out soft.

Alice rubbed her back.

"You want to bury him?" She asked. "I mean…do you want to say anything or…be there? I'm not good at this…what do you want to do about him?"

"I loved him," Carol offered, pulling away. "I loved him…and then…I hated him."

Alice nodded at her.

"I can get that," she said. "Are you going with us, or are you staying?"

Carol looked around, the expression on her face one that Alice was more than familiar with. It was the look of someone who was in shock. It was the look of someone who had just had something happen, or something told to them, that was simply far too much for them to take in. She would over it, but she needed a few minutes. She needed time for her mind to slow down and drink it all in. Then when the shock was gone she would begin to sort through all the pieces and put her reality back together.

But for the moment she needed some guidance, just as though she were a child being led through something she couldn't have the capacity to understand.

Alice had seen it a million times and she knew that she wasn't likely to have seen the last of it. They'd always said that the world was getting worse, they'd always said it was going to hell, but now it was true. There wasn't a good chance for "better" to come along.

"Carol," Alice said softly, "are you done with him?"

Carol nodded at her.

"I am," she said, her brow furrowed. "I am…I'm…done with him."

Alice nodded in response.

"I think I'm leaving," Alice said. "Are you going with us? With me? Or are you staying here with them?"

Carol's face twisted up again like she was fighting back tears.

"My daughter," she got out.

Alice smiled.

"Hey…she's OK," Alice said. "Just fine. And if you stay or if you go, she's with you. She's good now. She's going to be fine."

Carol looked relieved and Alice wondered for a moment if in her already overloaded mind she'd thought they might actually suggest leaving her daughter behind. It didn't matter at any rate. The girl would go where they went. Somehow they'd make it work.

"Come on," Alice said. "Let's get her. Let's get packed up."

"So that's it?" The old man of the group said suddenly. "You're all just leaving?"

"Stay here an' be shot," Merle called out, already heading toward their tent for the scanty things they could call their belongings, "or get the hell out…we'll take our walkin' papers."

"Nobody has to leave! Nobody has to be shot!" the man announced.

"Dale!" the police officer barked. "The people wanna leave, let 'em leave!"

"No!" Andrea said. "I agree with Dale."

She stepped toward where Shane was still looking life he was getting his life together.

"No one else needs to die and no one else needs to leave," Andrea said. "There's strength in numbers. You can't take Carol and Sophia and go out there alone. Carol? You want to go with these people? You want to just…strike out and go…where are you even going?"

"I agree, man," the black man offered. "We can't just send them out there alone. Carol's the one that should decide if they stay or they go. Ed was a son of a bitch, but he was her husband. She should be the one to make the call."

Shane looked around as voices started to rumble in agreement with this. He stepped forward then, toward Alice and Carol, and Alice waited to see what he would do. He stopped just before them, stood there a moment, nodding along with everyone else.

"Carol," he asked, using the best police voice that Alice had ever heard. "What do you want us to do?"

Carol shook her head.

"I don't want to…" she stuttered.

But she never did say what she didn't want to do. She just covered her mouth with her hand and continued to shake her head until Alice sighed and rolled her eyes at the indecision that was floating around her like a cloud.

"Are you going to be able to get over this?" Alice asked to Shane. "Everything that happened? Is everyone going to accept us part of the group? Because that's the only way we're staying. We're not staying if we're going to be so far on the outside…and we're not staying if you're going to hang onto this forever."

Alice glanced at Daryl who was coming toward her, crossbow and bag over his shoulder. Merle was further behind him carrying the bedroll he'd made of their sleeping bags and blankets.

Shane turned and followed her line of sight and then looked back at her, giving her an expression that said he hated to answer to her at all, and nodded his head.

"We put this behind us," he said. "Our side of it and your side of it. We don't hold it against you that you took it upon yourself to execute a man…you don't do it again…and you don't hold it against us that we haven't yet figured out what the hell the law is these days."

Alice laughed to herself at the irony of the situation.

"Right," she said. "Got it. You'll get over the fact that we shot some asshole that would have killed his wife and kid…and we'll get over the fact you pointed guns at our heads. Sounds like a fair trade."

Shane chuckled back at her response and narrowed his eyes at her a moment.

"Merle! Daryl!" Alice called. "Put the shit back out…we're staying."

They both stopped and stared at her a moment, then stared at each other, but apparently decided to take it in stride for the moment. Both turned without question, at least for the time being, back to where they'd come from.

"Carol and Sophia are staying in the RV," Alice said over Shane's shoulder and toward the old man who nodded his head at her. "They need that right now. Help me move their stuff?"

"Sure…sure…of course," the old man said, nodding to himself.

Alice smiled and pushed Carol toward the RV.

"Go in…lie down," Alice said. "I'll come and check on you in a few minutes."

Carol shook her head at her and Alice nodded back with more enthusiasm than before.

"Go. Lie down," Alice said. "You don't realize it, but you need to get still. You need to give yourself a few minutes of quiet. I'll bring your stuff. Be right there."

Carol finally nodded and accepted Alice's words, going straight toward the RV and ignoring anything that was happening while the others were coming to move the body of the worthless asshole. Alice ignored his last rites too and went with the old man to move Carol and Sophia's personal belongings to the RV.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Carol had checked on Sophia, but the girl was either asleep or doing a good job of pretending to be, despite the noise that had been going on outside. She was tucked up in the bed above the cab of the RV and Carol decided not to wake her. If Sophia was pretending to be asleep, even, she'd come down when she felt like she was ready to ask what was happening.

Carol sat down on the bed in the back of the RV and tried to sort out how she felt. It wasn't as easy as simply putting her finger on an emotion. She could spin the wheel of emotions, but "happy", "sad", "terrified", none of them fit what she was feeling. None of them even seemed like real emotions at the moment. They seemed like empty words.

Her nightmare, or at least what had been her nightmare for longer than any of the reality that she could barely believe was real now, was over in something that happened as fast as a thunderclap. Ed was dead.

And part of her felt relieved for that. Part of her almost felt happy that he was gone…like seeing his body crumple to the ground in a pile of blood and disgust was one of the best things that had ever happened to her.

But another part of her felt terrified.

Carol considered herself to be a person of many fears, though many of them had been related to the psychological torture that her husband had subjected her to for years. Her two greatest fears, though, were losing her precious daughter and being alone.

And one of those was closer to coming true than it had been before because, for no matter how much she'd hated Ed, he'd kept her from being alone. Admittedly, that was why she'd stayed with him. She'd sacrificed so much to keep from being alone, just like he promised her that she'd be if she ever dared to leave him.

She'd sacrificed her dignity, her pride, and even her self-respect. She'd given it all to him to keep him with her so that she at least had him, no matter how sorry the prize at the bottom of her Cracker Jack box of life was.

And she'd kept her daughter safe. He'd never laid a hand on Sophia. Carol never had to even think about it. If Ed so much as got mad at Sophia for something, she flung herself into his line of fire and reminded him that it was her fault. It was all her fault. She'd even taken, on more than one occasion, full blame for Sophia even being born when it had gotten under Ed's skin. She'd ignored entirely his part in it all because her daughter was hers…she was her responsibility…no matter how she'd been conceived.

And Ed had very nearly cost her Sophia. He had successfully cost her any other chance she might have of having another child, but he'd very nearly cost her Sophia. In the end, though, she'd kept her life and she'd kept her daughter, very nearly the same thing in her opinion, and she'd vowed to herself to protect the girl with everything she had.

She'd kept that promise.

But now she was alone and she was alone in a world that she could barely even recognize. She had no idea how she was going to make it and how she was going to keep Sophia safe in this world.

Carol heard the door swing open to the RV and she heard the sounds of Dale and Alice talking as they brought things in. She listened to their low conversation, making out the fact that Alice was saying something about them staying until she and Sophia had settled down some and Dale agreed with the woman.

Carol hated to know that she was putting any of them out. The thought that she might alienate herself and Sophia from these people any farther, especially now, just renewed the cold fear inside her and brought out another round of the tears that she wasn't in control of at the time and she couldn't even explain in any definitive manner.

"Hey hey," she heard Alice say to her, keeping her voice low as she came into the back room of the camper. She sat down on the bed beside Carol and put an arm around her shoulder before she held out a bottle. "I want you to take one of these, OK?"

"What is it?" Carol asked.

"Good for you," Alice said. "It's going to make you sleep."

Carol shook her head.

"I've got to help with…" she started. Alice cut her off.

"You're off duty today," Alice said. "And when Sophia gets up I've got it. I had a little babysitting practice in my life. We'll keep her safe just long enough for you to get a little rest that you need."

Carol shook her head.

"You've got my word," Alice said. "I swear to you…if I can stop it, nothing will happen to that little girl. She's safe. You're as safe as you can be. Just take this and sleep and you're going to be…like…an amazing new person. OK?"

Carol sighed and accepted the pill that Alice shook out of the bottle. She watched as Alice passed her the bottle of water she'd carried in and then buried the bottle of pills down in her bra. She didn't ask why Alice was hoarding what were apparently either sleeping pills or anxiety pills. She assumed the doctor had her reasons for doing what she did.

Carol swallowed down the pill and Alice pushed her back toward the bed as she stood up.

"Sleep?" Alice asked.

"Do I have a choice now?" Carol asked.

Alice chuckled.

"Hey," she mused, "how about that? A sense of humor…that looks good on you. It won't make you a Walker…or a…whatever they are. It'll just make you sleep."

"Please? Don't let Sophia…" Carol started.

Alice cut her off again.

"Nothing but playing with guns, swimming without supervision, and eating questionably poisonous mushrooms," Alice declared. "I promise."

She winked at Carol.

"I need to talk to her about Ed," Carol said.

Alice nodded.

"And you will," Alice said. "But…I think she probably already knows and I don't think she's going to ask. I will wake you up, though, drugs and all if she does."

Carol sighed and nodded at the woman, feeling herself already growing artificially relaxed to the point that she was finding it difficult to worry. Her eyelids drooped when she rested her head against the pillow and when she forced them back open, Alice had disappeared.

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Part of the group had up and left. They were going on a run, that's what Daryl heard.

For all the reaction they'd put behind the initial death of the man that they'd buried, they didn't seem too concerned with it at the moment. Once he was in the ground it was like the whole lot of them had simply shrugged and decided that it didn't matter anymore. Shovels down and dirt thrown, they didn't give a shit about the man that they'd maybe considered killing Daryl, his brother, and the woman that he'd come to be more attached to than most of the people he'd known before all this shit happened, for his murder.

The eldest of the sisters was gone, the black woman and the man that Daryl suspected to be her husband or boyfriend or something, and Glenn, one of the few whose name Daryl actually knew. They'd gone off in the truck that Daryl and his companions had followed into camp.

But also gone were the police officer and the bird woman, though they hadn't gone on the run.

"Let's go huntin'," Merle said, walking toward Daryl. "Alice is plenty damn busy now that she's got herself a play pretty."

"So we stayin'?" Daryl asked.

Merle sucked his teeth.

"Looks a whole lot like it," Merle responded. "Hell…I don't give a damn if we stay or we go. We gonna start haulin' that woman an' her kid around with us, though, we gotta think about that shit. It's hard enough ta move when they was just the three of us."

Daryl could agree with that. They'd nearly died and they'd nearly lost Alice too. It wasn't like they were really equipped to be anyone's heroes in all of this.

Staying would be the best thing they could do when it came to thinking solely in terms of safety. This camp was established. The people had done a decent job of setting it up. It had things they needed. They needed water and there was plenty of that. They needed food and the woods and water would offer that up as well. The camp was about the best that they could get at the moment.

And as much as Daryl might hate the idea of the numbers, they would go a long way too in helping them out when it came down to it.

"We'll stay," Daryl said. "First sign they gonna lose they minds again, though an' we out. I'd rather take my chances with the damn Walkers than I would with people that can't make up their minds. At least you know what the hell you're up against when it comes to the freaks."

"Let's hunt," Merle offered as a response.

Daryl followed him toward their tent to get his crossbow and waved at Alice as he saw her crossing the dirt expansion between the RV and the row of tents that were set up.

"You get her calmed down?" Daryl asked.

He knew that Alice was armed with a veritable arsenal of drugs. She'd told him that she had found Merle's stash and that she'd kept anything out of it that she thought might be useful. And she'd told him she was keeping it hidden so that Merle didn't decide to have a party with what might very well be crucial to someone else for simple survival.

Alice nodded at him as she approached.

"I think she'll pull through," Alice said. "Sophia too. What are you two assholes doing?"

"Huntin'," Daryl responded. "That fucker's in the ground an' some a' the people's done took off for Atlanta. Turns out that when he's in the ground they don't give a damn about him."

Alice stood in front of him, smacking at mosquitos that were trying to suck her dry, and twisted up her lips.

"Maybe they'll get the hell over it then," Alice said. "It would make it a lot easier on all of us if they'd just accept us. Dale seems cool. Jacqui and Amy. Andrea'll come around. I don't know about the rest of them, really. I'd say keep an eye out on the sheriff and his skinny little girlfriend, but I think as long as you don't stick your nose in their efforts to get poison ivy on their privates then they'll leave us alone."

Daryl heard Merle snort from where he was standing and waiting to get the show on the road.

"You gonna be alright? If we step out?" Daryl asked.

Alice smiled.

"Please," she said. "I'm more worried about you two than I am about me. I know how much you need me to watch out for you."

Daryl shook his head at her.

"I'll be fine," she offered. "I'm going to babysit. Do some laundry. I'm going to get my domestic thaang going on."

Daryl nodded and leaned close to her.

"Anyone starts anything with you? Before we get back? You kill 'em Al…don't fuck around," he growled at her.

She nodded her head.

"I'm way ahead of you," she responded. "Go get something good to eat…see if you can't shoot me a cheeseburger."

Daryl chuckled and turned without another word to head for the tent and step out through the woods with his brother.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. This brings us in a few new elements for when we keep moving along in the story. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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"So what's the story there?" Alice asked Daryl. "With the police dude?"

"Go ta sleep, Al," Daryl responded.

"I'm going to sleep," she responded back. "You know there's a story there. Did you see the way they hugged each other? I mean it's pretty fucking obvious the dudes know each other hardcore. Are they just going to pretend that the whole damn time we've been there Barney hasn't been porking Thelma Lou?"

Daryl snorted.

"Helen," he said.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Helen," Daryl said again.

"Was Thelma Lou that was goin' with Barney," Merle piped up. "Helen was Andy's piece. Figure that's what you meant."

"Well…whoever the fuck it was," Alice responded, "do you think he's going to tell him?"

"Go the fuck ta sleep, Al," Daryl responded. "Ain't none a' our damn business no way."

"You're no damn fun," Alice responded.

"You so damn interested in talkin' about pieces," Merle piped up, "you tryin' ta work somethin' up with that fresh ass widow?"

"That's me," Alice said, "scoping out the widows…shut up, Merle."

Merle chuckled and there was some thrashing around in the tent near Daryl that suggested Alice might have given Merle a smack for being a smart ass. He snorted in response.

"She ain't bad," Daryl commented.

"I didn't say she was," Alice said. "But dickhead husband or not, she needs her grieving time, don't you think? And besides…there's that whole straight thing."

"That's a bitch, ain't it?" Merle muttered, obviously trying to start sleeping once more.

Alice muttered something, but Daryl didn't really hear it. She rolled and he waited to see if she'd start up again, but it seemed that her chatter was over. She would sleep now which meant that he could finally get some sleep.

When the group had come back from Atlanta earlier that day, they'd had a few surprises for everyone back at the camp. Daryl and Merle had still been hunting, but Alice had very nearly busted her ass herding them off to the side after they'd dropped the deer they'd gotten off to tell them everything that had happened.

Apparently the group had to make some kind of grand escape from Atlanta. In their hurry to get out of there, they'd still managed to take two delivery trucks from a wharehouse store near where they'd, in their words, very nearly been trapped to the point of no escape.

So their first surprise was one they discovered upon return…they had two trucks, and both of them were loaded absolutely to the brim with assorted boxes that Alice had commanded she should get to go through first to make sure that medical supplies ended up where the hell it needed to be and no one "took anything" that would be better suited to someone else.

Apparently they'd fought her on that until she'd pointed out that she was the only one with medical training in the group and then they'd decided that the following day, when daylight was in their favor, she could begin the process of unloading the trucks and separating medical supplies from anything that could simply be handed out to whoever wanted it.

The other surprise, though, was the one that most interested her gossipy side.

They had found a person while in Atlanta and brought them back to join the group. But it wasn't just any person. It turned out that the person they'd brought back happened to be the "assumed dead" husband of bird woman and father to her kid.

Daryl didn't know how one was assumed dead when they weren't dead, but he supposed it had to do with some sort of separation. It would be just the same as if anyone they hadn't been around when the shit hit the fan just popped up in the woods one day.

Except everyone in camp knew that the bird woman and the police officer had been doing their best to scare away any wildlife in the area…and Alice said it was clear that the two men knew each other and knew each other well. The husband had been wearing a uniform.

Daryl didn't know much about it, though. He'd focused his attention after her story on cleaning the deer and then it was time to wash off the blood and prepare to eat with Merle at the tiny fire off to the side where they were welcome…away from everyone else. Alice had chosen to eat in the RV with Carol and her daughter.

He imagined, though, if there was something going on there then it wouldn't take too damn long before someone spilled the beans about what the hell had gone down in the cop's absence. And he didn't want to be in the way when that happened.

Daryl lie in the tent and tried to sleep, but he simply wasn't getting there. He wasn't sleeping at all. He was listening to Merle and Alice snore at this point, but he wasn't sleeping.

So he got up and let himself out of the tent, telling himself that he was going to take a piss when he really just wanted to get out of the tight space.

Outside the tent, the night was a nice one. The camp spot that they had was actually a nice spot and Daryl thought that, at that hour, it hardly seemed like they were living in the hell that they found themselves in now. Right now it was serene enough to seem like he was just out hunting with Merle and they'd somehow acquired this strange extended family that they didn't know well.

Daryl wandered down to the water with his crossbow and sat down on the bank, his crossbow within reach for any possible emergency. He peeled his boots and socks off and dipped his feet in the water that was much cooler than he would have ever expected it to be with the heat surrounding them during the day.

He sat there a while, his eyes closed, listening to nothing but the peace around him. He was finding it almost impossible to believe that there were, just out of sight, probably thousands of the flesh eating corpses that they seemed to keep stumbling and falling into constantly.

But he remembered it all too suddenly when he heard crunching and shifting dirt.

He picked up his crossbow and looked around in the darkness, the space only illuminated by the light of the moon reflecting off the water, trying to find out where the sound was coming from and be prepared to protect himself from an attack if one was imminent.

"It's me," a voice whispered as though Daryl would know who "me" was in the darkness. The presence of a voice and the ability to reason that he might be startled by their approach, though, at least let Daryl know that it was a reasoning human being and not a flesh eating monster.

He put his crossbow down and turned back to look at the moon's reflection in the water until he heard the steps get closer.

And then he realized "me" was Carol, the widow.

She sat down on the bank with about a foot and a half of distance between them.

"I slept all day," she said. "I couldn't sleep now. Is that what happened to you?"

"I was huntin'," Daryl offered. "Tent's tight."

"I get claustrophobic," Carol said softly. "I understand. I feel bad staying in the RV when everyone else is in the tents. Tomorrow Sophia and I can move back to…a tent."

"Stay in the RV," Daryl offered. "Might as well. Old man don't seem ta care. More comfortable for the kid."

Silence fell between them just as the woman hummed at him, it sounding neither like she was agreeing with him nor like she was rejecting what he was saying. The hum was likely more to feel like she'd responded to him.

And when the silence fell, Daryl appreciated it. He wasn't one for small talk, at least not until he knew someone well, and it was making him uncomfortable to try to think about what he should probably say to the woman. He didn't know what the hell the protocol was for talking to the wife of the man you'd had a hand in killing because everything he'd demonstrated to you reminded you of most of what you hated in the world.

It was Carol that broke the silence, first with another sort of hum and then with the words blurted flat out.

"I haven't thanked you," she said. "I didn't thank you…for what you did."

Now it was Daryl's turn to hum. He figured that she might have a lot to be thankful for now that the man was beginning to decay beneath the dirt in the Georgia heat. But he hadn't expected her to be forward enough to admit that she was thankful for the death.

And Daryl never knew how to take thank yous very well.

"Did what needed ta be done," he said, getting to his feet to keep the conversation from going any deeper. He gathered up his crossbow and threw it over his shoulder. He picked up his boots, not wanting to bother at the moment with trying to get his wet feet back into them. "You really oughta not be out here alone. I'm goin' back to my tent. You oughta go ta the RV."

The woman reacted to his suggestion by getting to her feet and it was only once she was standing that he thought that the nice thing to do would have been to offer a hand in getting up, but he hadn't thought that far.

He started toward the tent and she walked silently along behind him in the darkness, the crunching of her steps matching his as they went along.

He figured he should probably say something else to her…he should probably say a lot of things, but he didn't know what to say to her. He didn't know here well and he didn't feel like engaging in anything of conversation about her husband simply to cover the ground between the two points.

So he guarded his silence until he neared the tent and then he stopped.

She stopped too and seemed to be waiting on him to either say something or dismiss her to the RV. He combined the two.

"I'ma wait," he said, "'til you inside…don't want no Walkers comin' around."

"The camp's surrounded," Carol replied. "We put up wire."

Daryl chuckled to himself.

"Chicken wire," he responded. "Might slow 'em down…but I suppose they might get on through if they had a mind to."

As soon as he said it, he realized he really hadn't thought about it before. Maybe they weren't as safe as they let themselves think they were when they slept at night. If a Walker could bust through chicken wire it might be smart enough to smell a meal just beyond the cloth covering of a tent.

They hadn't had any problems so far, though, so maybe the wire deterred the creatures in some way. It was difficult to tell when no one had any real knowledge of the things beyond their own personal experiences, and those were limited if you were alive to tell about them.

Carol didn't move, though, from her spot and he wondered if he'd concerned her with the statement about the chicken wire.

"Prob'ly safe in the RV," he said. "We slept in the truck right in the middle of 'em an' they ain't done nothin' but rock it a little…"

"Goodnight," Carol offered softly, after a moment. "Daryl," she added.

"Yeah…same," he muttered.

And then she did direct her steps toward the RV. Daryl waited outside the tent until he heard the door close behind her, promising that she was inside safe…even if he wasn't entirely sure why he cared so damn much if this woman was safe from Walkers. Her abusive husband, he told himself, he couldn't tolerate on principle, but the woman wasn't his problem. She wasn't anyone's problem.

He crawled back into the tent, tossing his supplies into the corner with everything else they crammed around their tight sleeping quarters, and settled down into the bed that they made for themselves.

The woman wasn't their problem…but no one really wanted to be alone, or so he figured, and they probably wanted it less now than ever.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Alice almost felt like some kind of the end of the world Santa Clause. She was going through the boxes slowly and meticulously. At the moment they weren't hurting for anything and no one seemed to object to her taking her time and dividing things into categories.

The boxes contained really a wealth of things. Some of the items were utterly useless in their whole forms, like the two electric coffee pots she'd come across, but in their broken down state they could serve some purpose. For instance, Alice knew that the chords could be severed from the pots to use as binding since they were sturdier than any basic twine they might come across. The caraffes from the pots could be used for carrying water or holding anything they needed to use them for, but their basic heat resistance made them even more useful than something that might have melted or burst from coming too close to the fire.

And some of the things were even less useful, but they were still nice things to have around. Alice sorted many of those to the back of one of the trucks with the idea that she could go about handing them out later to bring a smile to some people's faces in an otherwise glum existence.

She'd been working for almost a week on simply going through the boxes. The food and beverages she immediately passed to Jim, one of the men there that she was getting to know well, who was responsible for moving that to a space where the other women had fallen responsible for organizing the food and feeding the group.

It was the other things that took more time. But Jim was patient and was a loyal assistant.

Alice had asked him all kinds of things about his life, but he was pretty hush hush about everything. His family was dead and he'd survived, that's all he would say about it. He insisted that was all there was to his story.

Alice imagined that might be all there was to anyone's story at this point. They're gone and I'm here. They died and I didn't. And I don't understand for a moment why it is the way it is…

When Alice was done sorting for a bit, she wandered down to the main part of the camp in search of drinking water and took one of the full bottles of boiled water and meandered down to where the other women were washing clothes, caught up in some kind of eternal struggle to stay ahead of the filth that was creeping up around all of them.

But the women down there working, Andrea, Carol, and Jacqui, seemed to be in good moods. They were all laughing and chatting as they worked, the air much lighter than it had been even a week before.

"Ladies, ladies!" Alice announced as she came down to the edge of the water. "Can I help?"

"Sit," Carol commanded. "We've got it and you've got to be hot."

Alice nodded and sucked down part of the bottle of water. She was hot, that much was true. The back of the trucks were almost like ovens and she had to break every now and again simply to keep from passing out from the heat.

Alice waded into the water unapologetically and soaked herself as thoroughly as possible. The other women laughed at her, not realizing that she didn't care if she was soaked. The heat would dry her clothes around her in a matter of minutes.

"So…while Jolly Old St. Alice is going through the trucks, what do you ladies want in your Christmas stockings?" Alice asked. "What do you miss most of all?"

"We don't even know what you've got in there," Jacqui replied. "You're too secretive about it all."

"I'm not!" Alice said. "You asked what I had and I told you everything. It's almost the truth, too. Looks like these were pretty nice deliveries to a store that sold everything from Tylenol to small appliances. There's a toaster in there…if you had electricity and bread you'd be in toaster heaven."

"I miss my coffee pot," Jacqui offered.

"Do you miss coffee?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or just the coffee pot?"

Jacqui snickered.

"The coffee…but good coffee," she said. "Not the dirty water we have these days that we're calling coffee."

"The only reason the coffee we have these days is ridiculously bad is because everyone's trying to make it go a mile," Alice said. "There are some coffee pots in there, if you'd just like one to snuggle up to at night for sweet dreams, but I'm afraid they won't do you any good unless someone around here has figured out a way to get us some electricity."

"T mentioned that he might be able to figure it out," Jacqui said. "Given enough time there's got to be a way to make electricity…solar panels maybe?"

Alice shrugged. She had no doubt that given the time and the resources they could rebuild society to something, perhaps, even better than it had been before. Honestly the question was simply whether or not they were going to be given that time or given those resources.

"Andrea? What do you want?" Alice asked.

The blonde looked at her and then she shrugged.

"I'd take the coffee," she said. "I'd love a good hot bath…a chance to shave my legs…some soap that smells nice. Those are the things I miss the most. The things I took the most for granted. I used to hate to take a bath and shave my legs. I'd run the bath and soak for about three minutes before I had something else I had to do. Now I'd soak for three hours if I could."

"You are some boring ladies," Alice remarked.

Andrea raised an eyebrow at her. Then she smiled and tipped her head to the side.

"You want non boring things we're missing?" Andrea asked.

Alice slipped a little deeper in the water, dipped her head back enough to soak her hair, and sat up, pushing the water out of her face with her hands.

"As long as we're doing it," she said, finishing her water and tossing the bottle toward the bank so that they could refill it later with more fresh water.

"I miss my vibrator," Andrea said.

Alice crowed out a laugh, clapping her hand over her mouth at the unexpected burst. She had never thought that Andrea might say something like that. Jacqui and Carol were laughing too, Carol blushing a little at Andrea's declaration.

"I do!" Andrea insisted. "I've got needs…I took that for granted too."

Carol hummed low in her throat.

"Me too," she admitted. "I miss mine too."

When her confession brought about another round of laughter, she blushed deeper and bit the end of her tongue.

"Jacqui?" Alice asked.

Jacqui laughed and shook her head.

"My coffee pot," she declared. "That's as out there as I'm going."

"Boo," Alice declared. "You're the most boring one of all now."

She pushed herself up, exiting the water, and picked up the plastic bottle she'd thrown to the side to return it to camp and get back to baking in her oven before she finished drying off entirely.

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Merle dropped off the load of firewood that T-Dog had chopped and piled up for him to haul back to camp. He'd spent most of the day working with the man and he was starting to get used to him. He didn't like him…but he was getting used to him.

Somehow, while Daryl was out running some snares, the two of them had been chosen most likely to do the manual labor around while it seemed that the two cops, two men that seemed quite suiting to their positions given what Merle knew about the fine citizens who chose the profession of law enforcement, engaged in "important conversations" with the Chinese boy about the future of their camp.

Clearly, neither Merle nor T-Dog could have anything to contribute to these conversations. Clearly, Merle wasn't smart enough to tell them that he'd had a good look at their "safety precautions" and had determined that they were about as effective as something kids might rig up to keep people out of their clubhouses.

The only reason their asses hadn't become dinner in their sleep was because none of those things had decided to eat them. It certainly wasn't for their precaution. He'd snagged a shoelace on one of the wires and in the process of trying to get the lace loose without sacrificing it, he'd snatched half the damn thing down.

Clearly, though, the fine police officers didn't want to hear what Merle had to say. They were too busy having something of a pissing contest over which one of them, both self-declared leaders, was going to be king of this smelling pile of shit.

One he dropped the load of wood off, Merle wiped his forehead with the back of his arm and ran a quick glance around the camp. Alice was occupied, but he knew where the hell she was. It wasn't too damn long and he caught sight of his brother. Daryl was cleaning rabbits…apparently some of the snares hadn't come up empty after all.

And then he scanned his eyes over the bunch of women that were scrambling about and setting up fires to get food cooking and later keep them all from being eaten alive by mosquitos.

There wasn't much to choose from when it came to women at the camp. The bird woman wasn't Merle's taste in any way at all…too damn skinny, not enough spunk to fill a thimble, and besides that she had both the cops crowing around her like her pussy was made of fourteen karat gold. The youngest of the blondes was barely more than a girl, not Merle's taste.

He figured that Alice was likely to lay claim to the widow woman if it was possible.

So that left, for him to poke at a bit, the eldest of the blondes. Merle singled her out in his line of vision and watched her, sucking his teeth a little and chuckling to himself as she bent over to rearrange the wood for a fire she was preparing.

She had a nice ass…and nice tits. She might not be an award winner as far as personality went, but if she had an itch, Merle figured he was just the man that would be willing to scratch it for her.

When she straightened up and turned around, in his direction, to start toward the wood pile he'd just dropped for more wood, Merle didn't take his eyes off her. He wasn't the kind of man who shied away and pretended he wasn't checking out the goods that he was contemplating. No sir. If he was interested, he wanted to be fair and let her know.

She curled her lip at him slightly as she walked toward him, keeping her eyes on him. He chuckled to himself and winked at her and she scoffed.

There was something about the thrill of the chase that made pussy taste that much better when you finally got it. And Merle always got it if he really wanted it.

"Do you need something, Merle?" Andrea growled.

"You offerin' already?" Merle responded, chewing his lip. "I figured you was more of a challenge, sugar tits."

She scoffed again and dragged more of a chuckle out of Merle.

"Not if you were the last man on Earth," Andrea muttered, gathering up some of the wood. Merle boldly leaned a little to position himself to be in a prime location to look at her ass when she did so and she very nearly ran a circle to get away from him when she realized it.

He laughed and whistled at her as she stomped back toward her camp.

"Leave her the fuck alone, Merle," Merle heard his brother's voice ring out. He turned to see Daryl passing off the skinned rabbits to the widow woman.

Carol thanked Daryl and he offered her something of a smile…the little crooked smile that Daryl offered any woman that he thought was pretty, always too damn embarrassed to do a thing about it…and then he walked on down toward the water to wash the blood off his hands.

Merle decided, for the moment, to heed his brother's words, but that didn't mean he was going to give up on the blonde entirely. His brother might like living the rest of his life with blue balls, but Merle Dixon didn't have any interest in the celibate lifestyle…especially not if there as a good damn chance they were living on some seriously borrowed time.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**This chapter has a Carol/Alice coupling. Femslash, whatever you want to call it. I've "blocked off" everything sexual (besides kisses/suggestive language/etc.) with "111111111". It comes about in the middle/toward the end of the chapter. The blocking out is for those that are squeamish about such things. You should be able to skip over that section fine. The rest, as I said, contains some kisses and some suggestive language, but everything "explicit" should be located between the two breaks. That being said, obviously those aren't scene breaks in this chapter, just to help out those that are freaked out by such things.**

**If you're super bothered by such things then simply skip this chapter and get the pertinent plot/character information from a friend who isn't. **

**You've been warned.**

**I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think. **

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After their dinner, Carol stayed behind at the camp to help clean up the dishes and such. The other women seemed to complain a good deal about the chores…about the laundry and the cooking and the dishes…but to Carol there was nothing to complain about. They were simply things that needed to be done and there were things that other people were doing that probably better suited to them.

Carol, for one, felt like she didn't really have a great deal of skills to offer to the group. She'd been a housewife because Ed hadn't allowed her to be anything else. She'd once wanted to be a teacher, and she was certified to do that, but she'd never actually gotten to use her degree because Ed hadn't wanted her outside of the home. It wasn't as easy to keep an eye on her if she was allowed to leave, and he swore that she couldn't be trusted anyway. She'd cheat on him, he claimed. She'd have some lurid affair.

The funniest thing about that, perhaps, was that Carol had never been anything in her life that might even come close to promiscuous. She'd had one boyfriend before Ed, swore she'd remain a virgin until marriage, and had kept that promise. She'd given her virginity to Ed right along with her pride and self-respect.

He was the only man she'd ever been with and she imagined it would remain that way. She hadn't cared much for sex at all, beyond what she did to her own body in secret…and even that was something she was careful about because if he caught her he would be angry about it and swear that it was further proof that she was simply a whore.

So life with Ed had taught Carol that domestic life was all that she could offer anyone. She could cook and she could clean, although not well according to him, and that was all she had. Therefore, she gladly offered whatever she could to the group.

But she knew that she was different from the other women in the group in a lot of ways. She saw how so many of them looked at her. She knew that they thought she was stupid for staying with Ed. She thought she was stupid for staying with Ed…but they would never understand how afraid she was of being alone and it wasn't something that she could explain to them. She never had been able to explain it and it was the reason that everyone she'd counted as a "friend" had left her life, one by one, once the abuse really started to get bad.

She knew that the other women, too, had much more to offer the group. They were smarter and they had more skills. That's why most of them resented being put on chores that they thought were beneath them. And that's why she didn't mind picking up the slack and letting some of them have the time off to do other things. She figured, if nothing else, it might win her more affection from the other women and it was simple enough to do since she had no real objection to any of the work.

She'd sent Sophia to bed a good while before she ever finished with her work. By the time she was actually going to bed herself, in fact, she was pretty sure that she was the only one awake and wandering around the camp…unless there was someone lurking.

As she walked back toward the RV, a light in the darkness caught her attention. The burning end of a cigarette. Even in the pitch black, it was something that Carol could identify. She'd seen it a million times to mark for her the location of Ed.

It was one of the Dixons, though the burning tip wouldn't offer enough light to identify which. Silently they were lurking, always the last tent to bed down for the night, and they were probably waiting for her to go to bed.

The three of the Dixons, the two brothers and their sister, were strangely ever present around the camp. They lived, much like Carol felt she did, a little outside of the group's "society," but it didn't seem to bother them. The three of them almost seemed mythologically untouchable to Carol at this point.

But she'd gotten close to Alice, the sister. She'd found in the woman the first thing she'd had in a long time that looked like a real friend. She was someone she could talk to and she was someone that didn't look at her with judgment. She might occasionally look at her with a little pity, which Carol didn't care for entirely but could tolerate, but she never offered judgment.

Carol knew the brothers, and she was forever thankful to them for what they had they done, whatever their reason for doing it had been, but they seemed a little harder to warm up to than the feminine member of their small clan.

Just as Carol passed well out of range of the burning tip, she heard her name being hissed out.

"Who is it?" She asked into the darkness.

"Alice," the voice responded back, a little louder. "I've got something for you. I'll bring it to you."

Carol couldn't imagine what Alice might have for her, but she quietly called back that it was fine and she would be inside the RV, checking on Sophia.

It wasn't unusual for Alice to visit with her, especially when everyone else was tucked away visiting with the people that they got along with best in the camp. For that she was thankful too. At least she didn't have to feel wholly alone with only Sophia in this world. She had someone else that would gladly keep her company, even if she had little to offer Alice in the way of interesting conversation.

Carol checked on Sophia and covered the girl up while perching the best she could to reach her in the bed that was now hers over the truck cab.

In the boxes, Alice had found some toys and Sophia had a rag doll that Alice had offered her. Carol put the doll closer to the girl for comfort while she slept and kissed her hand before gently pressing it to Sophia's forehead.

Then she got down from her perch and went to her room at the opposite end of the camper until she heard the door creak open.

"Carol?" Alice whispered into the darkness of the camper.

"In the bedroom," Carol responded back, equally hushed.

Alice came into the bedroom bearing a box that she held out to Carol.

"What's this?" Carol asked.

"Care package," Alice offered. "I just thought you might like some of the things and I put the best together for you before everyone else descended on it like wolves."

Carol accepted the box and looked at it. She really didn't care what was inside of it. The act alone of receiving a gift was exciting to her. She couldn't remember the last time that anyone had given her anything, especially without a reason.

"Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas…or whatever the hell you want to call it," Alice said. She closed the bedroom door to keep their voices from drifting in and disturbing Sophia and she sat down on the bed beside Carol.

"Can I open it?" Carol asked.

"It's yours," Alice said. "I know what's in there but you might want to open it on your own. I don't know how you are about some things."

Carol did open the box, and immediately she covered her mouth, partially in embarrassment and partially to stifle a laugh.

She reached in and pulled out the item on top of various other assorted things. It was a silver vibrator.

"Alice…" Carol said with a laugh.

"You said you missed it," Alice said. "They didn't have a large selection, but most pharmacies have a couple of those tucked away. I got you the best out of the choices. It's clean, but there's alcohol, you know…some other stuff if you need it.

Carol reached into the box and burrowed around, her embarrassment fading quickly with the marveling at the fact that someone would even think to give her something like that. She picked up a box she found in the bottom of the thing and showed it to Alice in the lamplight.

Alice smiled and shrugged, offering her hands up as though she didn't know what to say.

"What the hell, right? I mean if you need them you've got them," Alice said. "If not you can probably trade them for cigarettes in the yard if people start to get antsy."

Carol looked at the box of condoms. She dropped it back in with the contents of the larger box and dug around finding a pack of batteries.

"I loaded it up for you," Alice offered. "You're good to go for a while. And, if not? I don't think Andrea's going to need them if she'll woman up and give Merle a ride."

Carol laughed at the thought. And then she shook her head.

"I'm not going to need the condoms," she said. "I'm done with men. I'm not ending up with someone like Ed again."

Alice scoffed.

"Not all men are like Ed," Alice offered.

Carol chuckled.

"Pretty funny statement coming from a lesbian," Carol said.

"Hey, just because I don't want to ride their dick doesn't mean I've got a problem with men in general," Alice said. "Let's not fall into stereotypes. Every man is different. Ed was one of the assholes, but that doesn't mean that all men are Eds. It's just as unfair as if you suggested all women were…Loris or something."

Carol laughed at that and scolded Alice for her dislike of the woman. Lori wasn't as bad as some people thought she was, but she did seem to have a way of getting under the skin of several people. Carol hated to criticize because she was sure she wasn't everyone's favorite person either.

"Maybe they're not all the same," Carol said. "But just the same, I'm not going there again. There's nothing I miss from Ed anyway."

"Nothing Buzz won't take care of, right?" Alice responded with a light giggle.

"Better," Carol responded. "Ed wasn't very good at that either…or he said I wasn't."

"That's a cop out," Alice said. "You're only as good as your lover lets you be. It's a two way street. If it were up to one person then it wouldn't be much fun at all. No sense then in even signing up to play doubles."

Carol turned the vibrator she was still holding over in her hand.

"Ed hated that I had a vibrator," she said. "I had to keep it hidden. He got so mad about it…"

"Nothing says insecure in your manhood better than being threatened by something you can buy in a drug store," Alice said. "Good thing Ed's gone now and you don't have to give a damn what he wants. You do what's good for you. To hell with him…and he's got a first class ticket, I'm sure."

Carol hummed in agreement with the words of her friend. She sat there for a moment, her thoughts racing out of control, and finally she gave over to what she was thinking. Whether or not she'd regret it, she wasn't sure, but she had never given into her impulses before and she was tired of always being the one who didn't.

Carol moved and kissed Alice, the other woman not responding at first. When Carol pulled away she felt almost mortified.

"I'm sorry," Carol said. "I thought that…well…you're a lesbian and I thought that…"

She stopped because she couldn't go any farther for the risk of crying at the rejection she felt bubbling up from the unreturned kiss.

"I shouldn't have assumed that just because you are you'd be attracted to me," Carol said apologetically.

Alice laughed nervously.

"Carol, you're a beautiful woman…you really are. And I am attracted to you, but you're not gay," Alice said.

"I might be," Carol offered with little conviction.

Alice nodded at her and then she moved, kissing Carol back. Carol closed her eyes to the kiss and sunk into it, hoping that she was even kissing her well. And as the kiss went on, Carol was surprised at how her body responded to it. She wasn't a lesbian, or at least she'd never thought she was, but she couldn't deny that she was enjoying the kiss.

And maybe it was just the idea of having someone touch her who wanted to touch her…someone who had shown her such kindness when they didn't have to, but Carol wanted more, even if she wasn't sure what more was in such a scenario.

When the kiss broke, Alice was breathing heavier than normal.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked Carol. "Because…I want you to be sure about this. If you don't like it, I'm not going to be mad…but I care about you. I don't want to mess that up, you know?"

Carol stared at her and then nodded.

"Just our secret," Carol said. "Whatever way it goes? You don't tell and I won't."

Alice snorted.

"Are we going to pinky promise on it?" She asked.

Carol smiled and offered her pinky.

"If you want," she said.

As a show of her commitment to this, Carol peeled her shirt off and tossed it to the floor. As soon as she was out of her bra, though, she grew uncomfortable, concerned that the woman might not find her attractive at all. Ed had said that her boobs weren't enough and she knew that she was a little heavier than she once had been. And she was self-conscious about the ugly scar that ran from her belly button straight down from the emergency c-section that she'd received with Sophia.

But Alice didn't comment. She just swallowed and reached up, popping the button on Carol's pants and unzipping them slowly. Carol shimmied out of them. She wasn't sure about how to do this…the art of seduction being one she had never studied, so she took her underwear off too and stood there naked.

"Please take something off," she whispered to Alice, almost tearing up at her insecurity that the woman would call this off…that she would break the sacred junior high pact of the pinky promise.

As a show of faith, maybe, Alice got to her feet and lost her clothes faster than Carol had. She held her hands up as though she were simply saying "that's all there is to see" and then she put her hands on Carol's shoulders.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked, stressing her words.

Carol kissed her in response.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Carol whispered when she broke the kiss.

Alice chuckled.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "This…isn't about that. This is about me doing something for you. It's about me doing something for you that I want to do for you if you'll let me."

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Carol felt nervous, but she was the one who had initiated this and she trusted Alice. The woman wasn't going to hurt her, she was sure of that. What she might do, though, Carol wasn't sure of.

Alice kissed her again, though, one of the deep kisses that made Carol want more in the first place and then she worked her way down Carol's neck, kissing and licking until Carol was embarrassed at just how much her body decided that it liked that. Ed had never kissed her like that. He'd never treated her so gently.

"Lay down?" Alice whispered.

Carol did as the woman asked, hoping that at some point she gave her instructions on what to do because she wasn't clear in the slightest on how this was supposed to work. The mechanics of it just seemed off from what she did know.

But Alice sat next to her on the bed and moved so that she could take one of nipples in her mouth. One of her hands went to the other to tease it.

Carol squirmed, her breath picking up at the action. As Alice moved from one breast to another, paying each the same thorough attention twice over, Carol's mind started to almost go crazy with the want for more. She was aching and she squirmed a little at the feeling.

"Anxious, huh?" Alice teased when she released the nipples she was doing an elaborate study on with her tongue. "Relax, I'll get you there. I promise."

Carol tried to relax, but the soft tickling of Alice's fingertips on her skin drove her crazy as the woman slipped a hand down her stomach, pausing to lick at her belly button and then at the scar.

"C-section…hysterectomy…I'm sorry. I know what it looks like…" Carol panted out, suddenly worried that it might be a deal breaker, especially up close and personal, and at the moment she might cry if Alice stopped what she was doing.

"It's beautiful," Alice panted. "Everything…is beautiful and perfect. Relax…close your eyes."

Carol could barely contain herself when Alice moved and kissed the insides of her thighs. She moved close to her, blowing her breath onto her, and then moved back to her teasing until Carol found her body taking on a life of its own and trying to move into the woman to force her to do more.

And finally she got what she was seeking. Her hands found the bedcovers and fisted them up as she struggled not to cry out, certainly not wanting to alarm Sophia at this point. Ed had never done anything to her like this and it was a sensation that she'd certainly never achieved on her own.

And the addition of teeth gently scraping things…of sucking…of fingers searching her out…all got to be too much for Carol. Her body seized up and she was caught with a feeling much more intense than any she'd ever found on her own. It was something that felt so amazing that the pleasure was almost painful. And once the feeling stopped a little, it was renewed just as if buttons were being pushed to send Carol jerking into it once more.

By the time that Alice stopped, panting, and leaned up over Carol, Carol thought that her body couldn't have taken anymore.

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Alice smiled at her and trailed a finger over lips before she planted the softest and most innocent of kisses there that she had.

"That was…incredible," Carol panted.

Alice smiled.

"Good…I was worried I was rusty," Alice said.

"Now is it…my turn?" Carol asked, almost certain that she would have no idea how to do to the woman what had been done to her, but she was willing to try.

Alice shook her head.

"No," she said. "That was for you. And now? You're going to go to sleep and I'm going to slip on down to bed myself."

Alice eased off the bed and started dressing herself.

Carol looked at her, feeling guilty.

"But there was nothing in it for you," she offered.

Alice winked at her.

"There was plenty in it for me," Alice said. "A beautiful woman like you? Letting me enjoy the pleasure of pleasuring her? There's plenty there. I just want to know you had a good time."

Carol nodded.

"I did," she said. She leaned over the bed and picked up her own shirt and underwear from the floor to at least put something on now that she suddenly felt exposed.

"Good," Alice said. "Now…imagine how much you'd like that if it were someone you were actually attracted to doing it. You're not done with sex, Carol. And you're not done with men…if anything, lady, you're just getting started."

Carol sat there for a moment and watched Alice finish dressing.

"Al…" Carol asked.

"Hmmm?" Alice hummed.

"Would you stay the night? Sleep with me? I mean…just as friends?" Carol asked.

Alice regarded her a moment and finally crawled into the bed and wrapped herself tightly around Carol, both of them clothed now, and she pulled the blanket up over them.

And now Carol's heart thundered in her chest because she feared that this, no matter how much she'd enjoyed it, would cost her the only woman around there that she felt like she'd really connected with…the only woman that she would have trusted enough to even discuss things like she'd just done with.

"Alice?" Carol asked as she turned out the lamp and sunk into the comfort of having the woman's warm body comfortably wrapped up with hers. "We're still going to be friends, right? I mean…you're not going to hate me tomorrow?"

Alice chuckled.

"Pinky promise," she whispered. "Go to sleep. I'll sneak out before the sun's up."


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter to keep us moving along.**

**We've still got a little while left at the quarry, but eventually we will be moving on from here. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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"Alice! Al!" Merle yelled into the back of one of the almost empty trucks that he knew the woman was working in.

"Fucking shit Merle!" Alice yelled back, coming to the opening. "Are you trying to burst my eardrums?"

Merle chuckled.

"Hop ya ass down," he said. "I need ya ass ta do somethin'."

Alice did hop out of the back of the truck, obviously bothered over the probable ringing in her ears.

"What do you want?" She asked.

Merle sucked his teeth.

"Want ya ass ta talk ta the nice po-lice officers," Merle responded.

Alice looked concerned now.

"Talk to them? About what?" She asked.

"Their damn safety around here," Merle said. "Daryl's out huntin' an' I left him a few minutes ta come back an' tell ya the damn back wires are down an' about half the side ones over there."

He pointed in the direction of the damage they noticed.

"Al, they don't get some shit up an' this whole damn place could be just crawlin' with Walkers like fleas they catch wind a' us," Merle said.

"So why don't you tell them?" Alice asked.

"Won't listen ta me an' they won't listen ta Daryl," Merle said honestly. He chuckled to himself. "Figure ain't neither damn one a' us got the brains ta figure out they pissin' on our feet an' sayin' it's rainin'. But you…you got that damn degree they so fuckin' amazed by. Tell 'em they 'bout ta fuck up an' feed the whole camp ta the nasty ass fuckers."

Alice sighed and walked around the truck to peek back toward the camp before she turned back to Merle.

"They won't listen to me either," Alice said. "I have a vagina. You know the kind of men that don't think women know what the hell they're talking about."

Merle chuckled.

He'd been one of those men, and maybe in some ways he still was, but he was coming around to thinking that it wasn't that women didn't know what the hell they were talking about, maybe it was just some women that didn't know what the hell they were doing.

Alice had a way of getting under his skin that not too many women ever had. He had no interest whatsoever in fucking her, yet she was interesting to him because she was unlike any woman that he'd ever really gotten to know before. He'd tell her to go to hell and she had no problem telling him to go first. He liked that kind of spunk.

"They'll listen to ya," Merle said blankly. "I heard you talk before…you don't stand for nobody not listenin'. Make this ya damn case if ya don't wanna die in ya sleep."

Alice curled her lip in a smile at him.

"Well if I'm going with you," she teased.

But then she turned and walked back to her position where she could see the camp.

"OK," she said. "I'll talk to them…but I want you to do a favor for me too."

"What the hell you want now?" Merle growled.

Alice turned around and smiled.

"Carol? The widow woman?" Alice asked.

Merle walked over and stood behind Alice so that he could see what she was looking at. From where she was standing, with the right angle, he could see almost everything that was happening at the upper part of the camp. He could see Carol, laughing and talking to Andrea about something, not too damn far from where the two cops were sitting not a foot apart talking to one another and drawing in the dirt with a stick like they'd had a decent ass plan in all the time they'd been there.

"What about her?" Merle asked.

"I want you to find out what Daryl thinks about her," Alice said.

Merle made a face at her.

"Fuck you," he remarked. "I ain't no damn matchmaker lookin' ta get my brother's dick wet…besides, though you had a thing for her."

Alice laughed softly and shook her head.

"She's not gay," Alice said. "A little of that goes a long way when you're talking about fucking and everything else. But…now that her husband's dead? She's probably going to be a hell of a lot like a butterfly."

"You done gone an' got too damn hot in the back a' that damn truck," Merle growled. "Fried ya damn brain an' now you ain't makin' no sense."

"People find their sexuality," Alice responded, "and when they do…they get pretty anxious. Talk to Daryl?"

"Fuck off, Al," Merle responded. "Just talk ta the damn cops."

He started to walk off.

"What if I could get you a chance with the blonde? With Andrea?" Alice responded.

Merle turned around.

"Merle Dixon gets his own damn pussy," he responded.

Alice smiled.

"You might, but you're used to the old hit and forget it, right? You think that shit's gonna fly at the end of the damn world, Merle? Look around. You're not looking for short term anymore. Short term's a given thing these days," Alice said. "I'm talking about giving you a shot at something better…provided you've got the balls to handle it and not fuck it up."

Merle didn't like the challenge that she introduced into her voice with the final words.

"Why the fuck you care?" He responded.

Alice grinned and shrugged.

"Turns out my soap operas don't come on anymore," Alice responded. "And I haven't seen a good tabloid magazine in months. What do you say? I'll talk to the cops and Andrea. All you've gotta do is see if Daryl is interested in that beautiful, majestic, butterfly over there."

Merle chuckled.

"Talk ta the fuckin' cops Al or I'll beat your ass," he called as he walked off.

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Alice knew that Merle would do what she'd asked him to do. He liked to pretend that he was one kind of asshole…but really she'd figured out that he was another kind altogether. He was the kind of asshole that wasn't really an asshole at all. He was like an M and M in human form. He had a shell, one that he put there because he thought it would protect him from anything and everyone, but it wasn't all that hard to get beneath the shell if you knew what you were doing.

And Alice had already figured out what to do. As long as she could keep him away from his artificial assholishness in the form of drugs and alcohol, Alice figured that there was hope for Merle Dixon at the end of the world.

And there was even more hope for Daryl. His shell wasn't even as hard as his brother's. In a lot of ways, in fact, Alice saw Daryl as the kind of person who was simply begging you with his eyes to force your way in. He wanted it, he just didn't want to admit it.

The cops, however, Rick and Shane, were different kinds of assholes.

Of the two of them, Alice felt more comfortable with Shane than she did with Rick. Shane was an asshole and he was potentially dangerous…he seemed like a loose cannon…but at least he wore his heart on his sleeve. If you watched long enough, you knew what cards he had in his hand without question. Rick, on the other hand, was harder to read and that made him more bothersome. Alice felt, in general, more comfortable with people that she could read, no matter their personality.

Going on her feelings about the cops, Alice approached Shane and got his attention. He turned toward her when he heard his name being called and smiled.

"What can I help you with this afternoon, Alice?" Shane asked.

"We have a problem," Alice said.

Shane looked around.

"With the trucks?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"Bigger problem than that," she said. "The wire barrier's down."

She pointed as she spoke.

"That side's down and part of that one," she said. "It wasn't much to begin with, honestly, in the way of protection. More than one Walker determined to walk through it could have. But with it down? We don't have any protection and we don't stand much of a chance. If they smell us, or whatever it is that they do, then we're all toast."

"You're a doctor," Shane said. "Or you say you are…see…I don't have any reason to believe you are, actually."

Alice laughed to herself.

"Damn me for forgetting my diploma in all of this," she said with a smile.

He smiled back, not a sincere one in the slightest.

"You're a doctor," he repeated, "so what the hell is it that's going on with these people…or the Walkers…what the hell's making them get up and do what they're doing?"

Alice swallowed and shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "And as far as I know there wasn't a single doctor who did."

Shane sucked his teeth and rubbed his hand through his hair.

"See…Rick thinks we should move on," Shane said. "He thinks we should try to make it to the CDC, find out if they've got a cure…got some answers for us. Whatta you think about that? Bein' a doctor, and all?"

Alice chuckled again at the obvious challenge in his voice.

"I think if anyone knows what the hell is happening here," she answered, "they will probably know. Right now, though, I think the important thing is getting those wires back up and reinforcing them as best you can. Maybe some kind of alarm system wouldn't be a bad idea. If we're all dead, no one's making it to the CDC."

"Yeah…I heard you about that," Shane responded. "Rick and me will have a look at it. Get Glenn and Jim out there with us. It'll be repaired before the sun goes down. Don't you worry your pretty little head about that."

Alice smiled at him.

"OK," she said. "I won't…but reinforce it too? OK? I'm a heart surgeon…and I promise you that if I ever get the chance to cut you open and check on things? And I find a heart? I'll make sure it's working alright. But not even I can do a thing for you or anyone else if one of those Walkers gets their teeth on you."

Shane narrowed his eyes at her and then he recovered quickly enough and smiled.

"Yeah…get back to work," he said. "We might need those trucks for hauling stuff if we head out to the CDC to talk to someone who knows what the hell they're doing."

Alice nodded her head at him and turned, heading back toward the trucks.

She didn't know if the CDC was still standing. It was hard for her to believe that anything really was still standing or in place. When she'd left Atlanta, run out of the hospital by what they would have believed were people brought there to protect them but who had actually come to slaughter them all, Alice had pretty much decided that the world and anything they'd thought it to be was gone.

Civilization as they knew it was dead. The CDC would likely be the same deal.

But she knew that she'd never get the cops to understand that so it wasn't worth fighting over it. Let them go and see for themselves if it was gone. And if it wasn't? Then maybe they'd all get some answers, though there apparently weren't enough good answers to rid the woods of their Walker pals, and that was what concerned Alice the most at the moment. Whether they were here or on the road, it was no difference to any of them really. In the end it came down to running, and Alice wasn't afraid of the highway.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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Daryl poked at the smoking embers in front of him with a stick. It could barely be called a fire given the fact that they had a theory that the Walkers could see their fires and could find them if they burned too high. Maybe that's what had always gotten Daryl, Merle, and Alice in trouble along the way…they'd never kept their fires too low.

Tonight, though, Daryl was distracting himself with the fire to keep himself from thinking about the fact that his throat was dry and burning like he was choking on those very embers that he was harassing.

Carol and Sophia were joining them at their little fire tonight and Carol was sitting close enough to Daryl that if he'd leaned to the side even the slightest bit he would have bumped her shoulder with his. Sophia was at her side.

But what made it even worse was at Alice and Merle were sitting across from him with shit eating grins on their faces.

And Daryl knew why.

Merle had been bugging him out in the woods about what he might think about Carol. He'd been asking him if he had a thing for her. Merle never had any concern about what Daryl thought about a woman unless his focus was on getting Daryl laid…and that had turned out bad for Daryl a good number of times. Because Merle trying to get Daryl laid almost always ended with Daryl wrapped up with some woman he wasn't even fond of for a night while she got more entertainment from harassing Merle Dixon's little brother than she did from any of the acts that she thought up for them to do.

Daryl wasn't fond of the practice and he didn't think that Carol looked or acted like the kind of woman that would be interested in it.

So it left him concerned about what in the world the two grinning idiots might be up to.

Daryl did like Carol. She was pretty and he thought her eyes were the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen. And she was soft and sweet…so unlike any of the women that he'd ever known.

But that's what made her intimidating in her own way too. She was so unlike anyone that Daryl had ever known. In addition she was also a mother and freshly widowed.

Daryl imagined that the same rules that used to apply in life didn't apply now, but the dramatically changing world was just another aspect that made him nervous about the possibility of even entertaining anything with the woman at all. The world was so crazy, how could there even be time for things such as that?

Merle would insist, though, that the very nature of this new world and the temporary nature of their lives now made it even more so relevant to "get it while you could". In fact, that's what he'd mentioned more than once while he'd been out with Daryl, picking his brain.

The whole thing had Daryl so wrapped up in his thoughts that he'd barely been able to focus on any of the conversation taking place around the fire. Carol was talking to him, but he could barely hold onto her words. All he really seemed able to do was watch her face in the firelight, think about how pretty she was…and how much he didn't even know how to talk to a woman like that, now and again finding himself angry at the man that was cold in the ground who had thought it was fine to lay his hands on her…and worry about what he was supposed to be doing if he decided that he was interested in knowing her better than he had come to know her so far.

As a result, Daryl had nodded at some things that she'd said, but he wasn't sure what he might have accidentally agreed to, and that worry only made his throat feel even dryer.

He was grateful, almost, to the blonde when she came over, smiling down at them.

"I brought you some more water over here," she said, offering around some of the refilled water bottles that the camp collected. She was thanked as they were accepted and Daryl watched as Carol opened a bottle and passed it to Sophia.

Daryl accepted one of the bottles himself and tried to wash down the nervous choking feeling he was suffering from.

"Can I join you?" Andrea asked, looking around at the people sitting around the fire.

Alice barked out a "sure" and scooted closer to Daryl. Andrea sat down, then, in her place beside Merle.

"It's a nice night," Andrea offered, her eyes darting from person to person.

"Not too many bugs," Alice tossed back at her. "That's a relief."

Carol laughed.

"I'm starting to feel like I'm one big mosquito bite," she commented.

In response to everything, Sophia scratched to illustrate the point that they had all been nearly eaten alive by insects.

"The fish were good," Alice declared. "Didn't y'all think the fish were good? Merle?"

Daryl hummed that he thought the fish were good, but he saw Merle shoot a look at Alice. It was likely a look that meant they'd go a few rounds in the tent before bed tonight.

Merle cleared his throat.

"Fish was real good," Merle commented. "Hell of a haul for one person."

Andrea smiled at the compliment.

"Not one," she said. "Amy helped."

Merle scratched at his face.

"She was out there," he remarked. "But…I reckon I watched that shit long enough ta know she ain't brought in a fourth a' them fish."

Daryl watched as Andrea smiled and watched the fire.

Was Merle going to get laid over a bunch of fish? Daryl's brother could find pussy in the desert, not that it would do him much good, but Daryl wondered if he knew that his usual methods of loving and leaving might not go over so damn well when they'd all play hell trying to outrun the blonde and the Walkers at the same time.

Daryl chuckled to himself and shook his head, hoping that Merle knew what the hell he was getting himself into.

"I liked the fish better than what we had yesterday," Sophia said.

Carol bumped the girl quickly.

"Sophia," Carol said softly, "that's not polite. You be thankful for whatever we have."

Sophia whispered something of an apology and Daryl felt sorry for the girl getting scolded when it was simply her honest opinion that she was expressing…an opinion that he was inclined to believe with.

"Possums ain't bad," Daryl said. "But they're hard ta prepare with what we got these days. They don't taste as good as some of the other food we can get."

Carol looked at him.

"I've never made them before," she said. "I didn't know how to prepare them."

Daryl's stomach lurched as he realized that she'd been the one to cook the rodents and he'd, accidentally, insulted her. He shook his head slightly at her.

"Weren't your fault," he said. "Weren't nothin' you could do different. They can't be done the good way. There just ain't time."

"Gotta pen 'em up," Merle said. "You gonna make 'em the best they can be? You gotta pen 'em up an' clear 'em out."

"Pen them?" Andrea asked.

Merle nodded at the same time that Daryl did, everyone at the fire looking at them with intense curiosity for the moment.

"Possum's'll eat damn near anything," Merle said. "Taints the flavor if you can't clean 'em out real good."

Daryl cleared his throat and washed down the feeling again with water as he realized that he was about to engage Carol in conversation again…it hadn't been difficult when he hadn't thought about it and now he was wishing that he could go right back to not even paying attention to it. But opossums were only so interesting and the realization had crept in for him.

"But it weren't nothin' you done," he said again. "It'd be better just not ta get 'em, but…it's eat what you can kill right now. Eat what the damn Walkers ain't got."

Carol smiled at him and reached a hand out, touching his arm with her fingertips.

"And we appreciate it," she assured him. "No matter what it is, eating is better than not eating."

Their quiet conversation was disturbed by the sound of laughter coming from one of the other fires where the cops and the woman and child were sitting. In all the mix of things that Alice had found during her searching of the trucks, there had been some beer and some wine. She'd damn near fought Merle tooth and nail not to let him have it, and she'd finally won that because Daryl had stepped in on her side.

He and Alice both would give up whatever their share of the liquid was simply to keep Merle from drinking and possibly having too much. In general it was dangerous to have too much and to let your guard down like that, but on top of that they had Merle clean, something Daryl could barely remember having seen at all in the past ten to fifteen years of his life, and they didn't want to give that up because of too damn much to drink.

So the rest of the camp was enjoying, in the moderation of a glass of wine or a bottle of beer each, but Shane and Rick had both insisted on having two…declaring that they knew their tolerance levels well.

Daryl didn't figure they were drunk, their body weight would keep that from happening with so little intake of alcohol, but they'd both had enough to lower their inhibitions just a little and certainly to raise their voices.

The other fire was louder than usual too, given that they were more relaxed than they normally were, but it appeared that Shane and Rick were unable to tell stories about their time as cops without doing it loudly and accompanied by raucous laughter.

"Cops are too damn loud," Merle said with a chuckle.

Andrea called over to Dale at the middle fire and asked him if they might pass on the information that their words were loud enough to drown out their conversation all the way over here. Dale got up from his fire and went to do just that and Andrea settled back down, wiggling as though she were trying to make the hard dirt more comfortable.

Amy walked by a moment later and Andrea hissed out at her.

"Where are you going?" Andrea asked when she had her little sister's attention.

"To the bathroom, am I allowed to do that?" Amy asked.

Andrea didn't respond, but Amy took that as her response and trotted off to relieve herself in the RV.

Daryl took a cigarette out of his pocket and tossed the pack at Merle who was holding his hands up to say that he was waiting to catch it. He tossed the lighter as soon as he had it lit, but Merle just pocketed the item, having already lit his cigarette with a small stick he got burning in the fire.

"They're talking about going to the CDC," Andrea said, directing her words toward Alice. "What do you think about that? Is it a good idea?"

Alice shrugged.

"I mean…they want answers and if you're going to get them, that's where you're going to get them," Alice said.

"You don't sound too damn convinced," Merle commented.

"I'm not," Alice said. "You know where the CDC is, right? I came from that area when all hell broke loose. I never really wanted to go back there. There were Walkers everywhere and the government was killing everyone."

"So?" Carol asked. "That means they're dead, right? The government killed the Walkers too?"

Daryl saw the woman put her arm around her little girl and draw her deeper into her side.

Alice shrugged.

"Maybe," she said. "I mean sure, that's a possibility. They killed everything…people and Walkers, but…"

"But what? Spit it the hell out," Daryl barked without thinking, regretting that he'd been loud enough to make Carol jump and probably make them be heard by the very people they'd asked to be quiet.

Alice stared at him.

"What if while those people were dying, injured, unable to get away? What if they got bit?" Alice tossed out. "Then that just means that there are probably thousands and thousands of Walkers between us and the CDC. I don't know how damn lucky I feel."

No one else got a chance to say how lucky they felt. They heard the first of the blood curdling cries ring out and everyone looked around stunned for a moment before Andrea got to her feet.

"Amy?" She screamed out, running toward where the RV was parked.

And then there was another yell…someone else who had likely gone to wait for the bathroom, or maybe they'd been engaged in a conversation…from the same direction.

As soon as Daryl heard Andrea scream and then heard the growling and other screams rolling through the camp, he realized what was happening. Their all-knowing leaders had been responsible for repairing the camp's protection…and now they were seeing the fruits of their labor.

In the darkness they were surrounded by an unknown amount of Walkers and they were caught so offguard they might as well have all had their pants down.

Finding his feet, Daryl snatched up the crossbow on the ground not far behind him and looked around for the Walkers that were hard to see in the darkness. In his efforts he got his hands on Carol, who was wrapped around her daughter, and pushed them behind him.

In the confusion he already couldn't tell where anyone else was or what they were doing. All he knew was that he had to the best he could to kill whatever was coming at him.

And then the sounds of screaming and shouting and of shots ringing out into the night let him know that he wasn't the only one fighting.

Now they could only hope that when the dust settled everyone was still standing.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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The night had waged into early morning before they got all the Walkers in the area down and movement stopped. Carol found herself and Sophia pushed into the RV along with Lori and Carl. Jacqui had spent some time with them, but then she'd stepped out to offer her services to everyone still outside.

When the fight had broken out, Carol was surprised that Daryl had pushed her behind him, putting her and Sophia both in a position where the Walkers coming toward them would have to come through him and his knife, his crossbow hanging down because it was essentially useless in the close contact, to get to them.

And he'd been the one to get them to the RV and shove them toward the door, yelling at Carol to get Sophia inside.

Now Sophia was asleep, thankfully, in the bed that Carol normally slept in and Carl was asleep in the upper bed that Sophia typically occupied. Carol sat on the couch beside Lori and wondered what they were supposed to do.

"We should help," Carol offered. "We should see if they need help. I can at least make some breakfast for those that are hungry. Get water for them."

"Rick said to stay in here," Lori said. "Keep the kids safe, that's our job."

Carol shrugged to herself.

"What's going on out there is what's going to keep them safe," Carol offered. "If everything out there falls then we're not going to last long in here. We don't even have water or food to offer them."

Carol got up from the couch and walked into the room where Sophia was sleeping. She assured herself that the girl was fine and then came back through the main room of the small space.

"Keep an eye on Sophia for me?" Carol asked quietly.

Lori looked at her like she might argue but then she finally just nodded at her. Carol thanked her and stepped out the door of the RV.

Outside the light was beginning to show in the sky and it illuminated everyone that was moving about half dazed. Everyone was filthy and moving around Walkers to fires that they had burning nearby.

Carol watched a moment as Glenn was directing those dragging Walker bodies toward the two fires.

On the ground, not far from the door of the RV, it appeared that Andrea was keeping watch over their only obvious casualty. Amy lie on the ground just by her sister. Carol felt her heart clench.

She hurt for Andrea's loss, but she also hurt to realize how easy it could have been any of them. Amy had only gone to the bathroom, a trip that was common enough for any of them, and it had simply been an unlucky enough time for her that she'd been bitten in the process.

Carol walked over and gently put her hand on Andrea's shoulder, not wanting to startle the woman. Andrea turned slightly toward her but then she looked back at the lifeless body of her sister.

"I'm sorry, Andrea," Carol offered. "I'm so sorry."

And she didn't get a response, but she didn't expect one either.

Carol found Jacqui easily enough and offered to help her get together water and food for the people that were working. They worked almost in silence, the same silence that the rest of the camp seemed to be guarding, whether out of respect for Amy or out of the shock of the entire situation.

"They're afraid she's coming back soon," Jacqui whispered to Carol. "They've been circling the both like vultures. Everyone wants to make sure there's somewhere to shoot her when she does come back."

Carol frowned at the thought. She knew it was necessary, but it didn't mean that it made it a pleasant thing to think about when it was someone that they knew…and sweet, young girl at that.

"Andrea shouldn't have to do it," Carol said. "It's not fair to ask anyone to be the one to put down their loved ones."

"That's why Dale's been offering to do it all morning," Jacqui said. "The oldest of the redneck men too."

"Merle," Carol offered. She really had nothing else to say in response.

When the chaos began, it was over before too many people were aware of what was even happening. Carol heard the crack of the gun before she realized there was anything different about the sobs that occasionally broke out of Andrea and then it was over just as quickly as it began.

Carol was surprised to see it was Merle who walked over to offer a hand to Andrea…not to take her sister away, but rather to offer his assistance in getting the girl to the grave dug for her.

"That could have been any of us," Carol said to Jacqui while they got together a meal, both of them looking up when Merle and Dale came by, acting as some kind of pall bearers for the sheet wrapped body. "It could have been anyone…we're not safe here at all. You can't even go to the bathroom."

"I don't think there's anywhere safe anymore," Jacqui responded.

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Daryl had done at least three laps around the Walkers that were left and assured himself that all of them were down and they weren't getting up again. There would be no cleaning their camp, though, that was sure. The bodies could be gone, but the ground was blood stained and now it was tainted. It would never again even seem like a safe haven after what had happened the night before.

Even Daryl didn't feel like he was going to feel good about going to take a piss now. It wasn't that it was ever safe, but it was that they'd all let themselves _believe_ it was safe, even if just for a while. Now it was clear that they were all wrong, some of them for longer than others.

"We should head to the CDC," Daryl overheard Rick say to Shane. "They're working on a cure. It's our only chance. They might be rebuilding by now. They might be putting…civilization…back together."

"You think, Rick, if they had some cure? You think if they were rebuilding? We wouldn't know it out here?" Shane responded. "There's nothing left, Rick. The only hope we have now is what we build."

Daryl hovered a moment longer closer to the two men and listened to their exchange. Finally, he offered his thoughts on the situation.

"We gotta move on," he said. "We're movin' on any way. If this place? This CDC or whatever…if they gettin' this under control…they gonna find us. You can't hide from the damn government if you tryin' to."

Rick looked at him and nodded. It was possibly the first time that anything Daryl had said to most of the people around here had been validated at all.

"We need to move," Rick repeated. "As soon as we can. Pack up camp and move first thing in the morning if we can."

Daryl didn't stick around to hear the rest of the conversation. Whether the group moved or just his group moved, he didn't care really. And whether they were headed to the CDC or they were just headed away from here, he didn't care either. In the end it was all the same.

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Merle accepted the bottle of water that Carol offered him when he got back from covering up Andrea's little sister. The bottle was thrust at him and it was clear that there was some kind of serious discussion taking place, but he couldn't focus on the words in the moment for the blood pounding in his ears from heat and exertion.

"Fuck is goin' on?" He asked, directing his words toward Carol.

Whatever was going on, Daryl and Alice were both in the middle of it, but it didn't look like it had come to blows yet, though Rick was walking around, and Shane too, with their arms out like they expected Daryl to jump at them both in the mood that he was displaying.

Carol glanced toward where she had both the kids sitting and doing lessons, really something more to distract them than anything else since Merle figured it didn't matter anymore if you could read or write.

"Jim's been bit," she hissed. "The fever's started."

Merle glanced back at the group, his hearing getting better with the slowing of his heart now that he was standing still. He turned and glanced back toward where they'd buried the girl to assure himself that Dale and Andrea were still fine. Then he looked back at the group.

"Fuck they yellin' about?" He asked.

Carol stepped closer to him.

"They want to move tomorrow," Carol said. "All of us going to the CDC. Rick thinks they'll know what this is. He thinks they'll be a cure."

Merle was pretty sure that either the heat had addled his brain or he simply wasn't understanding a single damn thing. He couldn't figure out one thing had to do with another. So they moved on? Whether they went to this CDC place or they went to the moon, what did it really matter? And furthermore, what the hell did it have to do with a man that was well on his way to dying?

"What the hell does one thing gotta do with the other?" Merle asked. "C damn whatever it is and that man bein' bit?"

Carol made a face he couldn't interpret, but when he heard the words that she offered next, he realized it was her quiet way of saying she doubted the following to be true.

"The CDC will have a cure for this and if we can get there in time, they can save Jim," Carol said.

Merle sucked his teeth and nodded at her. He drained the bottle of water that he'd been drinking and handed it back to her before he started toward the group that looked like they were all yelling for the sake of yelling, not a damn soul actually directing their words at any clear receiver.

"Al! Shut'cha fuckin' loud ass mouth," Merle growled. "Get the fuck over here…"

Alice and Daryl both jerked their attention in Merle's direction. Alice walked over in his direction.

"This place? It gonna have a cure for whatever the hell this shit is?" Merle asked.

Alice shrugged.

"You know I can't tell you that," she said. "I don't know any more than you do."

"What the hell you think?" He asked.

And she was reluctant to speak…never a good sign when Alice was involved. It was all the response Merle needed.

"He's gonna die an' he's gonna turn," Daryl snapped. "They're talkin' about puttin' him in the RV with Carol an' Sophia! Lockin' his ass up with 'em ta just wait until he's one a' them damn things. We oughta put a bullet in him an' be done with it."

Before Merle could say that he could clearly see where his brother was coming from…but maybe, just like he'd pointed out when he'd killed Ed, it was more humane not to discuss things like that in front of the man they were talking about killing…Rick got in Merle's face yelling at him.

"We do not kill the living!" He yelled. "We are not going to shoot one of our people because he's bit! We will go to the CDC and we will find a cure for him!"

Merle sucked his teeth and pushed the man out of his face hard enough to let him know that if he came back in the same manner then he'd likely not get the same friendly courtesy.

"Shoot him, don't shoot him," Merle said. "You get bit. You die. You turn. Good damn chance they ain't no cure."

"We have to try," Rick said, the shove having calmed him down some. "We have to try. A cure for him could mean a cure for any of us if we got bit. It could save our lives. We're going to the CDC. We're leaving in the morning."

Merle stared at him.

"Why the hell we leavin' in the mornin'?" He asked. "You wanna beat this shit load the fuck up an' leave right now. You draggin' ya damn feet's as good as shootin' him yaself."

Merle was almost amused at the look thrown between the two cops. Apparently neither of the dumbasses had thought that while they were busy fighting about saving the man, the man in question was busy dying.

Merle looked at Daryl.

"Let's load up the truck, lil' brother," he said. "Reckon you, that lil' girl, an' the woman'll fit in the cab. Al's a bitch, she might as well ride it."

And he laughed at his own joke as he headed toward their tent to start taking the thing apart to pack it up.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Carol was still trying to wrap her mind around the turn of events that were now taking place. She was in the cab of the truck with Daryl, the youngest of the Dixon men, and Sophia was beside her. She'd given the girl the space next to the window so that she wasn't as crunched into the truck as Carol was, and so that she wouldn't feel like she was being constantly shoved into Daryl. As a result, Carol was shoved into Daryl.

And it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Everything they owned, everything that made up their lives at this point, was crammed into the back of the truck and they were driving along in a line of traffic. Merle and Alice led the pack on Merle's motorcycle since he insisted he wasn't riding the whole damn way like the last dog in a dog sled team. People could look at his ass the whole way if they had a desire to do so.

Rick, Lori, and Carl were driving the Cherokee that had belonged to Carol and Ed. She wasn't sad at all to give them the car. She'd hated it and it was a reminder of Ed. It was a reminder of the woman that she used to be and the woman that she never wanted to be again. She wasn't sure that it was that easy to "change" who she was, but she was going to try.

Daryl was behind them and directly behind them was Shane with the RV following behind that and loaded down with everyone else in their group.

They were going to Atlanta. They were headed for Atlanta and for the CDC.

There they were supposed to find some kind of answer for this. They were supposed to find a safe place. According to Rick's beliefs about the whole thing, as they neared the place they were going, they were bound to encounter civilization beginning to spring up around them.

But that wasn't what it looked like while they drove toward the city, dodging Walkers here and there that didn't have the sense not to walk into the road and interrupt their caravan's movements. It didn't look to Carol at all that they were driving toward some kind of Promised Land. It looked, instead, like they were driving through a waste land that bore something of a resemblance to a world that they once had known.

When Carol thought about it, it made her shiver with fear. It made her shiver with a different kind of fear than she'd known before.

It was the fear that there wasn't a future for anyone. There wasn't anywhere to go, not really. There wasn't any way to really survive. They would all simply be waiting their turn to be like Amy…to be like Jim…to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And more than for herself, that terrified her for Sophia. She had dreams for her little girl, especially now that Ed was gone and she wasn't growing up in his shadow, to live a long and happy life…a full life…and she had a hard time imagining that could happen when they were promised that they were heading toward some kind of salvation and that's not what it looked like at all.

When the shiver ran through her, Daryl shifted slightly and glanced at her before returning his eyes to the road.

"You cold or somethin'?" He asked. He hadn't spoken to her since they got loaded into the truck and he asked her if she was comfortable.

As hot as it was today, and their bodies pressed together through the tight confines of the cab, Carol couldn't imagine that she could be cold if she tried.

"No," she said. "Just…I just got a chill."

It wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't sure that the Dixon men were men that would appreciate your confession that you'd thought yourself into a state of shivering with fear at a future that you couldn't imagine or didn't want to imagine.

"Heat an' air don't work on this thing," Daryl said. "Hadn't worked in damn near five years…but they's some blankets in the back. You can get one next time we stop."

Carol thanked him but refused the blanket. She busied herself with burrowing around in the bag she'd tucked in the foot of the cab by Sophia's legs.

"Are you thirsty, sweetheart?" Carol asked.

Sophia perked up.

"Yes ma'am," she responded.

Carol offered her some water.

"Just a sip," Carol said. "Make it last. It's got to last until we get to the CDC."

"When are we going to get there?" Sophia asked.

Carol looked around and tried, in vain, to figure out where they might be based on their surroundings. She had no idea. And honestly, even if she had known where she was, she wasn't certain where they were going and she wouldn't have been able to guess when they'd get there given the fact that they weren't able to move at the same speeds they would have once covered ground.

"I don't know, sweetheart. Tonight? Maybe?" Carol offered.

Daryl snorted.

"We ain't makin' it tonight," he said. "I reckon we're gonna have ta camp somewhere tonight. At least let Alice an' Merle in the RV with everyone else. Two a' them can't sleep on that bike all night and we don't need ta try ta drive straight through."

It was already getting late.

"What? We're going to camp? I thought we were making the CDC tonight. I thought that was the reason that we left today?" Carol asked.

She instinctively put her arm around Sophia, not really knowing what she was trying to "protect" her from but feeling the need to do it regardless.

"We mighta made it if we left first thing in the mornin'," Daryl commented. "Don't know if you ain't noticed, but we ain't exactly making good time. We'll make it tomorrow after a couple hours sleep, but we won't make it today an' it ain't no good tryin' ta move at night. They're worse at night."

As though their speaking about it got everyone else's ears burning, a horn blast behind them rang out. Daryl tapped his horn and Rick slowed in front of them, sending a signal to Merle who rode up a piece and turned around, bringing himself and Alice back toward the group before he stopped the bike to match the rest of them.

"Guess we're stoppin'," Daryl commented. "Reckon this is as good a place as any ta make camp."

"On the road?" Carol asked.

Daryl chuckled.

"You wanted the Holiday Inn?" He asked.

She made a face at him. That hadn't been what she'd meant at all, but she couldn't imagine making a camp right here. It just didn't seem like the ideal spot, even if she didn't know what the ideal spot might have been.

Daryl opened the truck door and dropped out. Carol took that as her indication, along with the fact that everyone else was starting to spill out of the vehicles, to get out.

"Sophia, stay in the truck, OK? Just until we know what's happening," Carol said before moving to slide out of the driver's side.

"I'm hungry," Sophia said. "Are we going to eat soon?"

Carol didn't know the answer to that. She could imagine the answer was most likely no, but she wasn't sure. Still, she could do without food to make sure that Sophia ate and she knew there were some granola bars in the bag in the foot, apparently designed to hold them over until they reached their destination.

"There's some granola in the bag," Carol said. "Eat one of them, but only one. We don't know how long it'll be before we get anything else."

Sophia nodded at her and went for the bag and Carol exited the truck and went to see what the others were discussing now that they were bunching around.

"What's going on?" She asked as she approached everyone.

"Jim's not doing well," Jacqui said. "He's bad…he's begging for us to…"

She stopped talking but Carol already knew what he was probably begging for and it was probably what any of them would be begging for at this point. She didn't know exactly how long it took to die from a bite when you weren't bleeding to death as well, like Amy had been, but she imagined that they didn't have a very long window of time to work with and he'd already been suffering for some time.

"That's what the hell we shoulda done in the first place," Daryl declared. "I already said he wasn't gonna make it."

"He could still make it," Rick said. "We can still make it to the CDC."

"The RV's overheated," Dale said. "I've got to find a better hose for it or we aren't making it anywhere with the RV. We can't move him."

"He can barely stand the RV as it is," Jacqui said, shaking her head.

"I'll go with Dale," Shane offered. "We'll go find a hose. There's got to be a place somewhere or something on the road that we can use."

And without waiting for words, the two of them walked off, headed for the Jeep that Shane was driving, neither looking back at the moment.

"So what are we going to do about Jim?" Lori asked. "If we fix the RV, can we make it to the CDC tonight?"

"Not a chance," Merle said quickly. "Getting' too damn dark ta see an' we can't just go drivin' into Atlanta when we can't see our damn hands in front of our faces. Don't know what the hell we goin' into."

Rick turned quickly toward Merle.

"We cannot just let him die!" Rick snapped.

"He's already fuckin' dead!" Merle yelled back at him. "He's bit! We ain't gonna make it to the CDC before that man dies. If we try ta go on now, we're all prob'ly gonna die…every damn one a' us…an' the fucker's still gonna die 'cause he's already bit!"

"This isn't going to get us anywhere!" Alice yelped out at the both of them. "Jim is going to die. The CDC might not even be there and it might not be running. The government shut down the hospitals with automatic weapons. Who's to say that they didn't shut the CDC down? Merle's right, though…we're not making it in time for Jim."

"We can't just let him die," Lori said, shaking her head.

"Sometimes…people die," Alice commented. "No matter how much you never want it to happen? Sometimes people die."

Lori shook her head.

"If that was you? You would have wanted us to get to the CDC," Lori responded.

"If it was me? I'd be realistic," Alice responded. "Just like Jim. If he wants to go, let me go in there. We've got some drugs that I could mix and match. I could make him go quietly."

"Kill him? You would kill him?" Rick asked.

"I would make him go to sleep and not wake up," Alice said. "You'd rather shoot him in the head?"

"Shootin' him's a better damn idea," Merle said. "Gonna have ta do it now or later anyway. Wastin' shit ta try ta kill him this way."

"We're all dead anyway!" Andrea said from where she was standing, off from all of them. "What are we even fighting for? Why are we even going on? We're all dead anyway…there isn't any hope."

Carol crossed the space and put a hand on Andrea's shoulder. The woman was still shook up over Amy and then, her sister barely in the ground, they were driving down the road headed for a place that might not even exist to save a man that probably wouldn't make it to the place of his supposed salvation. Everyone might be looking at her like she'd gone mad, but Carol could understand what was eating at Andrea.

"There's hope," she offered the woman, though she wasn't sure she believed her own words, "for you and for us. There is…Jim just…"

"He got bit," Daryl commented quickly, biting at his thumb. "Why don't we ask him what the hell he wants?"

"Let's wait until we can move on?" Lori asked, a hint of begging coming into her voice. "At least be able to move the kids? I don't want Carl…he doesn't need to see this…"

There were exchanged looks between them all.

"We let Jim decide," Rick said. "When they come back with the hose. We let him decide…and then we go on with whatever he decides."

Merle cleared his throat.

"Al and me," Merle said. "We'll stay…take care a' Jim. We can catch up."

Carol bit her lip and felt Andrea loop an arm around her, drawing her closer to her. It seemed that they already knew what was coming, and it seemed that decisions had already been made.

They'd make it to the CDC, if there was still a CDC to arrive at, but they'd do it with at least one less person in their group. And Carol hoped it was only one person less if they had to lose anyone at all.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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They'd made camp not more than three miles from where they'd left Jim with Alice and Merle. At this point, "making camp" simply meant that they'd parked their vehicles in a line right in the middle of the road with no concern about the fact that they might be disrupting traffic or something. Carol hadn't seen another car besides theirs since they left, at least not one running, so she imagined that they weren't likely to bother anyone.

Darkness was falling around them when they heard and then saw the motorcycle approaching. Carol was sitting in the cab, in silence, beside Daryl while Sophia leaned on her and tried to sleep wrapped in the blanket that she'd brought her from the back of the truck.

Daryl cranked down the window when Merle pulled the bike up by the truck.

"Done?" He asked.

Merle grunted and nodded his head.

"Where you gonna sleep?" Daryl asked.

Merle killed the engine of the bike and Carol watched as he and Alice got off of it, neither of them speaking for the moment.

"See if they'll let us in the damn RV," Merle said. "If not…back a' the truck."

"That's not safe," Carol said.

Merle stared at her through the window.

"Ain't much is these days, sugar," Merle said. "They'll let us in the RV."

Daryl cranked the window up as the two of them walked off, leaving the bike where it was, and went toward the RV.

"She asleep?" Daryl asked Carol, looking over her at Sophia leaned against her.

"Yeah," Carol said softly. "She's asleep."

Daryl bit at his thumb and nodded slightly.

"We better too," he said. "Early start ta get ta the place tomorrow."

He leaned against the window, settling down into the uncomfortable truck seat. Carol watched as he moved his head a few times to get comfortable, his eyes closed. She leaned her head back, finally, against the back window, not sure she'd sleep, but at least willing to try. She hoped she'd sleep…and she hoped that her dreams might be sweeter than the flashes of horror she saw behind her eyelids as she thought about Jim and what his final moments might have been like.

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When they arrived at what was supposed to be their so called land of salvation, Daryl was impressed with the size of the building but with little else. It was a huge ass building, he could give it that, but it looked to be locked up tight with heavy rolling doors around it that were the style that you'd see at any shop.

Surrounding the whole building were corpses. Some of them were mobile, others weren't, but they were all dead.

"Is this it?" Carol asked quietly.

"Looks like it," Daryl said.

"They're not open, are they?" Carol asked. "It's closed. There's no one here."

Daryl hummed.

"Don't reckon I know too damn much about it," he said, even though he secretly agreed with her sentiments. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, though, when the place was such a place of hope for those who still believed that there was some kind of way out of this hell. "Let's check it out. Stay close…can't go runnin' after everyone an' it's gonna be dark soon."

Ahead of them, Alice and Merle were already off the bike and after the Walkers that were coming after them. Daryl slipped out of the truck, snatched up his crossbow, and crossed around in front of the truck to clear the Walkers headed for them so that Carol and Sophia could safely climb from the driver's side.

No one bothered with any more supplies than their weapons at the moment. There wasn't any need. Daryl was sure that he wasn't the only one that figured the place was just as surely shut down as everything else in the world.

When they reached the building, Daryl herding the woman and child that he'd somehow become responsible for, Rick was the one to start beating on the metal doors. Most everyone else followed suit while Daryl, Merle, Alice, and T-Dog took the role of killing off the Walkers that were coming toward the beating noises.

"This place is closed!" Andrea called at Rick. "There's no one here! We're the only ones left!"

"They're here," Rick called back.

"Rick, man, it's closed," Shane responded.

And it went back and forth…and back and forth some more before Rick announced that he saw something move. He saw a camera move. He swore that there was someone in there, there was someone watching them through the cameras.

Daryl turned back to take in the camera that he was pointing out, but he heard the tossed out explanation that it was probably automatic and set on some kind of timer. The building, being a government building as it was, probably ran off some kind of generators that kept going even though everything else in life had simply stopped.

Rick made a plea to the camera. He begged the camera to a degree that Daryl couldn't imagine begging anything…especially something that most likely wasn't listening.

And night was falling around them which seemed to either make the Walkers worse or else it just seemed to make them worse because it made it more difficult to see them coming. Daryl kept his eye on the fading light and then yelled back at them.

"We gotta give up," he said. "Gotta get back ta the fuckin' cars 'fore it's too damn dark an' we ain't never gonna make it back alive."

And they might have given up, except for suddenly they were bathed in a flood of light and their ears ached at the metallic screech of the door closest to them being rolled up. Daryl stopped looking toward the Walkers that were ambling about of the sheer surprise that something was happening, even if he didn't know what. It could be their salvation after all, or it could be something different entirely.

A man opened the door, a gun pointed at them all.

"Go away," he said.

"We have women and children!" Rick responded. "You have to help us. This is all there is for us. Please…let us in!"

"Go away," the man repeated. "There's nothing here for you. Go back where you came from."

"There's nothing out here for us. If you don't let us in, if you don't help us, you're killing us all. Please!" Rick begged to the man.

There was something like a silent stand off between them all. Finally the man spoke again.

"Get your things," he said. "Whatever you're bringing in. Once these doors close, they don't open again."

They all took that as the words that meant their salvation. This place was still up and running. This place would be what they'd been promised by Rick that it would be. It would be a place of salvation and safety.

In a stampede, almost, they ran back to their vehicles and grabbed everything they could. Daryl carried more than twice what he probably should try to carry in any one load, grabbing his bags and anyone else's bags that he could, and then he ran back toward the building, herding Carol as he went, Sophia safely left at the building with Carl.

When they got inside the building, the man with the gun didn't lower his weapon. He ordered them inside, yelling at them, and the heavy metal doors they'd begged to get through closed behind them.

But they were safe.

Daryl went with the others, quiet and listening but not really understanding anything that the man was spouting as he walked.

Daryl got the basic information out of him. This was a government facility. It was set up to run when everything else around them shut down, as it was clearly doing now. The man was a doctor. His name was Jenner. He had been here researching a cure to whatever it was that was causing the ambling corpses.

They were led onto an elevator, all huddled together, and taken to another part of the building. The man walked them down long and winding corridors lined with rooms and Daryl marveled at the coolness of the air…there was air conditioning. Already this place was turning out to be nicer than most places he'd lived before they'd landed flat in the lap of hell.

"The bunks are all closed down," Jenner said as he walked. "The offices are open and they've got nice couches. You'll have to make do with that. There's hot water for showers, but you'll need to be sparing. There's a game room with books and games for the kids, but don't plug anything in…"

Daryl walked right behind Carol who held Sophia close to her.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked.

Jenner turned back and smirked at her.

"Claustrophobic?" He asked.

Carol nodded and Daryl put a hand against her back.

"Try not to think about it," Jenner responded. "You can leave your things here. I'll show you the rest of the wing that's open. You'll all undergo blood tests. That's the price of your admission."

Daryl didn't hear much else the man had to say because everyone was beginning to drop into rooms. Some of them were acting like animals trying to lay claim to their territory. He pushed Carol and Sophia toward a room, afraid that everyone else would take everything available, and passed the woman the bag that he was carrying before he turned around and found that Merle and Alice had claimed an office for them and were hanging out the door at him, waving him to bring his things.

Their things dropped off, their group was herded into a room where, one by one, they offered up more blood than most of their bodies could really stand to spare at the moment. Daryl was concerned at the fact that both Carol and Sophia looked like they didn't feel well, and he didn't miss it when Merle caught Andrea under the elbow when her step faltered slightly.

"Is there something I should know?" Jenner asked, pleased with his samples and seeming to Daryl to be an oddly cold man at the moment. "Are you people sick?"

"Starving…dehydrated," Alice muttered from where she was leaning against a wall.

"We haven't eaten in days," Jacqui said, speaking up. "We haven't eaten…we ran out of water. We barely slept."

Jenner looked back and forth at the various faces in their crowd and chuckled lightly to himself.

"Is that the problem?" He asked.

No one spoke. No one really knew what to say or what to do. Daryl imagined they were all feeling like he was at the moment. They were trapped somewhere between wanting to believe this was the greatest thing that could happen to them and feeling like there was something off about the man and the whole thing.

The man who was, from the story he told, the only one left. The only one who hadn't run and who hadn't, as he described it, "opted out" when things went to shit.

And therein lie a small burning ember of question…this place was amazing, so much more amazing than anything they'd been living in for the past few months…why had they opted out when they had all of this?

But Daryl never asked the question and no one else said anything at all beyond confirming that they were starved, they were thirsty, and they were exhausted. Those things taken care of, in fact, Daryl thought the whole thing might look a good deal different.

"Well if that's all it is," Jenner offered, "then come on. We can take care of that."

And they all glanced at each other before they started to follow the man once more, those of them who were surer on their feet helping along those that were having a more difficult time keeping themselves moving.

They were in this now, and if the man had food and water, it would at least make it easier to start to trust him and to believe that this was the blessing that it appeared to be.


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: Here we go, another chapter.**

**This one is longer than usual. I got a little carried away. Sorry!**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Carol felt almost like an entirely different person as she showered off using more soap and shampoo than she'd ever consider necessary under different circumstances. Jenner might have told them to take it easy on the hot water, but the showers in the little bathroom complex had run almost nonstop since they'd all eaten.

The meal had been the biggest and best that Carol could remember in the longest time. She was actually full and it felt strange to her. She'd also had at least two glasses of wine and had half a bottle in her room in addition to the full glass that was sitting on the sink area just outside her shower to wait for her when she got out.

Everyone else had gone through and taken their showers and Carol had begrudged no one the time that they'd taken and the care they'd likely put into cleaning up. She took time to shave even. It was an activity that normally she hated, but not having had the option before made it so wonderful now that she was careful to shave absolutely every bit of hair that she could think of off of her body to simply enjoy the fact that she had the opportunity to do so now.

This place, it seemed, was going to offer them exactly what Rick had said it would. Even if it didn't have answers for them, and even if there was no cure for the Walkers that were outside the building they were now calling home, at least they were going to live there forever in safety and not have to be concerned about the insanity outside.

Sophia was asleep in the couch that Carol had made up into a bed for her. For once, and hopefully for once in a long line of nights, Sophia could sleep soundly…absolutely soundly…and Carol could know that she was safe. She was safe from Ed and she was safe from Walkers.

It was a wonderful feeling and it was invigorating to Carol.

When she finally switched off the water from her shower, she opened the door and stepped out, suddenly realizing that in her excitement to be clean she'd forgotten a towel. It didn't matter much anyway. The linen closet they were all pulling from was just around the corner in the small complex of showers.

Carol drank down another swallow of her wine and glanced at herself in the small, fogged mirror. She couldn't see much of herself there. Clearly the mirrors weren't for any large amount of primping. They were basically for emergency self-examination only.

But either the small mirrors lied and were kind to those who looked in them, or Carol actually felt like she looked better than she had since even before they'd begun to run for their lives. She had avoided, for so long, looking in mirrors because she was always met with a black eye or a busted lip…some sign of Ed's handiwork…and now that wasn't the case.

She wasn't beautiful, and she never would be, no matter what Alice might have her believe, but at least she looked better now.

Drip drying, Carol decided to go for her towel. She rounded the little corner and sucked in a breath of shock as she ran into someone else. She'd been expecting to be the only one in the area. She was the last awake…or at least that's what she'd thought.

And he stood there a moment obviously as surprised as she was. She felt like her reflexes weren't working at all because she was slower at covering herself than her brain wanted her arms to be and she turned sideways, trying to make herself disappear into the air.

He stood there still staring with the general expression of a deer caught in headlights.

Neither of them quite knew what to do at the moment. And then he extended an arm an offered her a towel in silence. Carol snatched it and muttered a thanks as she wrapped it around herself, her cheeks burning.

And suddenly she felt tears prickling at her eyes. It was the overwhelming experience of having been completely revealed to someone when you never wanted it to happen. He was wearing pants, at least, and carrying everything else as his hair still dripped the evidence of a recently finished shower onto his shoulders and down his chest.

"I'm sorry," he said, the first words that he'd offered.

Carol didn't move. She was frozen to her spot for the moment. He seemed nervous, like it had been him who was completely naked in front of someone instead of her.

"It's OK," she said. "You can stop staring now."

His eyes flicked toward the floor a moment and then back at her. Out of the pile of clothes and things cradled in his arm like a baby, he pulled an open bottle of whiskey that he'd apparently taken from the kitchen area and took a drink from it before he offered it to her.

She shook her head and he smiled. It was a warm smile, a crooked smile…and it was one that she didn't see too often from him though his older brother wore one with much more frequency.

"Take the edge off," he said. "You look like you gonna cry."

Carol felt like she was going to cry. It was one of the reasons that she wasn't speaking so much at the moment. She had the fear that if she opened her mouth she'd lose the strength she had to hold it back. She figured he was the kind of man who would think it was stupid to cry, though, especially over embarrassment.

"I'm fine," she said quickly.

He pushed the bottle at her again.

"Here…just don't get too excited," he said. "It's strong."

She could smell his breath from where she stood. He'd had more than a taste of the beverage already. And that in itself surprised her. She was used to Ed, someone who drank and raged at the world for everything, and now Daryl was standing in front of her, obviously having already nursed the bottle for a little while, and it seemed, if anything, to make him nicer.

"I have wine," she said.

"You still gonna cry?" He asked.

Carol shook her head. The feeling had passed now. Her cheeks weren't even burning quite so hot.

"No," she said. "I'm not."

He smiled again and laughed to himself.

"Done its job, then," he said, tipping the bottle up to take another sip from it.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?" Carol asked.

And for another moment, Daryl did just that.

"You're…uh...kinda in my way," Daryl commented, pointing over her shoulder. She realized that to get to the exit of the small shower complex he'd have to walk right where she was standing. She had run into him trying to get back to his room. She truly was in his way.

"Oh," Carol breathed out, backtracking into the space where she'd showered, the door open to the small passageway he had to pass down. He hesitated and then walked, somewhat awkwardly, by the door. "Daryl?" She called, wrapping her towel tighter around her.

He stopped and turned entirely so that he was facing her dead on, now blocking the door to the small room that was her bathroom for the moment.

"Yeah?" He asked.

Carol chewed her lip.

"Do me a favor?" She asked. "Don't tell anyone…you saw me?"

Daryl stepped another step into the small space and Carol held her ground. He was looking at her like he could still see through her towel, or like he was trying to.

He nodded his head slightly.

"Nothin' ta be ashamed of," he muttered in a voice low enough that Carol might not have heard it if she wasn't basically reading his lips as he spoke.

She swallowed.

He seemed hesitant to go, or either he was waiting to be dismissed, and Carol was struck by the words in addition to that. The way he was watching her, now leaned with his back against the wall, Carol felt herself overcome with a feeling that she hadn't felt in a very long time…at least not when standing face to face with a half dressed man.

The feeling she knew well was lust. It was nothing more than that. It wasn't some profound feeling of love or admiration. She felt like she wanted to touch the man in front of her…the man that seemed to be nervously contemplating the same thing about her…she wanted to be touched by him.

But they were trapped in a standoff that was so awkward that Carol could feel the tension hanging in the air around her.

He could be that much of a gentleman that he wouldn't "take advantage" of this situation. Or he could be inexperienced enough that he didn't know what to do or if she wanted him to do anything. Or he could simply not be interested.

Carol reached and got her glass of wine. Daryl still didn't move other than to sip again from his bottle. He seemed content to stay right there or stuck in place…one or the other.

And she, Carol Ann McAlister, who had once had big dreams…before she'd ever married Ed…of being some kind of sultry seductress, but had no real claim to fame, wished she knew how to seduce the man standing in front of her. She'd never seduced Ed, even, though, and she wasn't sure that what she did with Alice…complete with pinky promise and basically the request that she have sex with her…counted as seduction.

She drank a swallow of her wine, put the glass down and stepped toward Daryl.

He didn't move other than the bobbing of his throat as he swallowed. She reached a hand out, touched his chest just barely, and stilled when she felt him tense and his muscles flex. She put the other hand on his chest, noticing his increase in breathing.

The small knot she'd made in her towel wasn't going to last long free of her hands to hold it in place and Carol knew that if rejected her now she was going to be mortified, and just as naked as she'd been before.

She moved to kiss him and he kissed her back. It was a timid kiss between them at first, and then it became something more.

Daryl put his free arm around her then, the cradled pile of clothes still between them, and Carol felt her towel slip. She pulled out of the kiss, her body against his, and looked at him, biting her lip.

"If you want to do this," she said, her lungs almost seizing up at her nervousness for the moment, "then I want to do this. I'm about to lose my towel, though."

She laughed to herself, keeping her eyes locked on his.

"So if you don't want to, then I'd like to catch it in time," she finished.

He smiled at her, a little more relaxed than before. He moved his hand and Carol felt the hard jerk as he grabbed her towel with the free hand and jerked it loose, letting it drop on the floor behind her. Then he stared at her, almost like he was challenging her. So she backed up, took the pile from his hands, and put it in the sink with her own clothes, his bottle going beside her now abandoned glass.

Carol looked at his pants, but she didn't say anything. He took the hint and popped the button, shimmying out of them to reveal that he wasn't wearing underwear. It must be in the pile with everything else.

She blushed but held back on the feeling. She wasn't any good at this…she really wasn't…but she wanted to be right now.

She bit her lip and stroked him, watching as his face changed and he closed his eyes to her a moment. She took his hand and guided it to her breast. Once he touched her, he seemed to know what to do, because he squeezed her breast and ducked his head to kiss her.

And after a moment he groaned in her ear and then pulled away. As a forgotten thing, Carol realized the door to the small bathroom was open and she closed it. When she turned back to find him, he had spread her fallen towel out on the floor. He snickered when his eyes followed hers.

"Best I could do," he said.

Carol smiled.

"I think it'll be alright," she said. She expected him to offer her the towel. She expected him to wait for her to take her place, silently, on the floor so that he could take his over her.

What she didn't expect was what he did. He was the one who took the floor and he reached a hand out to her.

She bit her lip and shook her head. His brow furrowed.

"Changed ya fuckin' mind already?" He asked. His voice sounded like he'd been betrayed. It wasn't quite anger, but there was a flicker of something there, disappointment perhaps.

Carol shook her head quickly.

"No, but…I'm not good at that. I don't know how to…" she stopped. She just didn't know how to be on top. She didn't know that position with Ed. It wasn't one that he liked and therefore she didn't suggest it.

But Daryl reached, caught her wrist hard, and pulled her toward him.

"Floor's dirty," he commented.

And Carol nearly tumbled onto him, not as steady on her feet as she might have wanted to be, but she accepted then that he wasn't going to discuss this with her. This was how they were doing this if they were doing it at all.

She was this far in, she might as well. So she took her position and did the best she could. And Daryl didn't seem to complain. He didn't complain at all. And it wasn't long before she wasn't complaining either. She lost even the ability to worry about and fret over how bad she thought she might at be at this and how much she might disappoint him.

Because it really didn't matter…even if it was the worst ever, it was simply scratching an itch. It was simply giving into something she wanted to give into and, hopefully, offering him a little something too. It was appreciating his body and showing, perhaps, a little appreciation for his kindness.

When it was done, Carol held her position for a moment. She leaned against him while he leaned with his back against the wall enough to support him. She dared to kiss him and to receive his kiss in return, and then she finally pulled away and gained her feet, going for her discarded washcloth to clean up. He silently requested it for himself and she passed it to him before she started to dress in that same guarded silence.

The awkwardness of before that seemed to have left the room had returned and it had done so tenfold.

As Carol put clothes on her body, she felt like she was also robing herself in insecurity and embarrassment again. She couldn't believe what she'd done…how she was acting. She was ashamed. This wasn't how she should act and she never should have done that because she was far too old for such foolishness and she couldn't very well expect to subject Daryl to the pinky promise.

He dressed in silence too. Carol glanced at him once or twice, obviously caught up in his thoughts, though she couldn't imagine what he might be thinking at the moment. He probably had a lot of material to work with after what she'd just done.

She thought it looked as though he might be blushing some. He pulled his clothes from the sink and put on a shirt to go with the pants that he'd been content to wear alone earlier. She wondered if it was because of the hateful scars on his back. She wondered if he'd been only going without the shirt because he believed that he was alone…and that was why he'd tried so hard to keep his back to the wall, not realizing that her fingertips could read them like braille.

Carol didn't know how to escape the bathroom or what to say or do. If Daryl told everyone then she'd be mortified, but she earned it, she supposed…the thrill her body had just felt gone now in the wake of her worry.

He picked up his bottle when he'd finished dressing, piled the leftover clothing items back in the crook of one arm, and then picked up her wine glass and offered it to her. He stood there, chewing his lip and looking at her for a second, and then he touched his knuckles to her face, slid them gently down, and hooked his finger under her chin. When he lifted her face to him, he kissed her, short and quick, on the lips.

And then he slipped out the bathroom and down the little hall, leaving Carol to gather the rest of her things and go to bed…not sure what the morning might hold for both of them living in this new little world they'd found with something like this between them.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter.**

**Just a quick reminder in case anyone needs it, this story is going to have some resemblance to the show, but I'm working with my own interpretations of the characters coming from slightly different places in their lives. So it's not going to be like the show in a lot of ways.**

**I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think! **

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Daryl went back to the office space that he was sharing with his brother and Alice while his head was still reeling from what happened in the bathroom.

He still wasn't even sure what had happened entirely. He could almost be convinced that he'd had enough to drink to have passed out somewhere and dreamed the whole thing because that's what it almost felt like. It felt like a dream or a hallucination.

Daryl already thought Carol was a pretty woman, but he had found her absolutely beautiful when he'd been given the opportunity to examine her more closely and actually really look at her without the distraction of so much else happening around them.

And he'd been as surprised as he could have possibly been to run into her in the hallway, naked as the day she was born.

And she'd been so flustered and so wound up about it. She'd seemed so overwhelmed by something so simple…it had amused Daryl. The women that he'd seen naked before hadn't been embarrassed by their nudity at all. It was clear that they were used to showing their bodies off to anyone who would look. It was clear that many people had probably seen them in that state of undress. But with Carol it was different.

She had been embarrassed by her nudity, apparently so much so that she hadn't wanted him to tell anyone that she'd been caught without clothes on. Apparently it was embarrassing to her to be seen without them when she was showering.

And if her nudity had been surprising to him, the fact that she'd kissed him was even more so. The fact that they'd gone from the kiss to sex was unexpected. Daryl almost hadn't believed that she was suggesting such a thing. He was no stranger to women who went from zero to a hundred in a matter of minutes, but he hadn't thought that she'd be that kind of person.

For the rush of it, though, it had still seemed different to him.

He'd never really cared about the women that he was with before. They were, mostly, Merle's cast offs and it was something that neither he nor they wanted beyond the moment, if they even really wanted it in the moment.

But Daryl had come to think of Carol, and her daughter too, as something he was somehow responsible for and maybe that extended past keeping them from getting beat on by assholes or chewed up by animated corpses.

Maybe his responsibility, imagined or real, extended to just simply keeping them from getting hurt. Maybe it was giving them what they needed.

Carol had seemed to need what they'd done, and Daryl couldn't say that he hadn't enjoyed it. He'd enjoyed it more than he'd ever enjoyed it before, actually.

And he hoped, somehow, that it might not be the only time that he got to touch her like that. If it was, though, he'd understand that too. He might be pretty decent at protecting her, but he didn't really have a whole lot else to offer someone like that, even in a world gone to hell.

When Daryl got back in the little room and found his bed, bumping around in the darkness, he pulled his shirt over his head.

He didn't like people seeing his scars regularly. He cared more about it than Merle did. Merle figured that anyone who wanted to look at them could look and he wasn't going to give a shit. Daryl didn't like the way that they made people treat him though.

People who wouldn't treat you with an ounce of respect when they didn't know about them would treat you differently when they did. The problem was that the way they treated you wasn't genuine at all. It didn't have a single damn thing to do with you. It had to do with them making themselves feel better. And, for that, Daryl kept the things hidden the best he could.

He hadn't imagined, whether it was wrong or right, that Carol would've gone the same way though. Instead, he figured that if she saw them she might get too wrapped up in them. She might get too wrapped up in trying to make him feel better about them…because she would understand where they came from…but that hadn't been what he'd wanted. He'd wanted to give her what it was that she seemed to need…he wasn't feeling like he needed a hell of a lot at the moment.

In fact, he was feeling like he had a lot more than he'd had before, and it was a pretty good damn feeling if he'd ever had one.

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Carol was almost horrified at herself.

She made it back into the room she was sharing with Sophia, two couches pulled together to make a bed where she could sleep wrapped up tight with her baby girl, and she sat on the floor for a few moments to get her mind under control before she tried to lie down next to the sleeping child and dream.

She didn't even know what had come over her. It wasn't her. She had been a woman who had sex so little with her own husband that she could almost convince herself that her child had been born out of some kind of miracle. Ed hadn't really ever liked sex with her and as the years of their marriage ticked on and time marched across her body, he'd liked it even less.

And she wasn't asking for it, not from him or from anyone else. He might have accused her of being some kind of promiscuous woman, but nothing could have been farther from the truth. She barely even looked in the direction of other men out of the sheer concern of how she might pay for it if he found out about it and didn't like it.

Yet he'd been gone so little time and already she'd practically thrown herself at two people…two very different people, no less.

And she had enjoyed it. Alice had been right. The touch, the sensations, the feeling that someone wanted what was happening between them and wanted to be close to her and enjoying her body…it was incredible on its own, but it was far more incredible when it was someone like Daryl, someone that she found sexually attractive.

She did find him attractive. He wasn't handsome in the movie star sense of the word, but his body was nice and there was something of an innocent charm to him that made her want to do things with him that she hadn't even known that she might imagine. She wanted to do things with him that she wasn't even sure were legal or even possible.

And her own thoughts made her blush because they felt like they weren't even hers. They felt like they belonged to someone that she didn't even know, or at least to someone she hadn't known in a very long time.

Her body could still feel him. It had been something so long forgotten to her body that it felt like her nerves were trying to hold onto the memory of it to keep for if it never happened again.

Carol was surprised too, that she was already, whether she wanted to admit it or not, a little concerned with whether or not it ever would happen again.

She thought she wanted it to happen…maybe many more times…but she thought that she didn't want to be the one to tell him that. She didn't want to be the one to come begging to him to take her back again. If she did, she'd be ashamed of herself for being that way and she'd feel like it was her that wanted him and he was simply humoring her because he was a man.

And that wasn't how she thought of him and it wasn't how she wanted to think of him.

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"I'm never drinking again," Glenn declared, his hand in his hands while he sat around the breakfast table.

Carol pushed Sophia through the short line to get food and laughed to herself at Glenn's predicament. He wasn't the only one that was hung over. Most of them wore an expression of regret for the liquid that they'd drank the night before. Even Carol had a pain in her skull that throbbed every now and again, particularly when someone was too loud.

"I've gotta say," Jacqui commented, "I think I'm done with wine for a while too. I can even smell myself. I think? Is that what I smell?"

T-Dog chuckled and leaned down near the woman, putting down a glass of juice as an excuse, but then obviously taking a whiff of her.

"You smell fine," he said. "First damn time in a while any of us can say that. We smell clean. The whole place smells clean. I thought I'd never take a breath and get anything besides nasty rotting corpses again."

By the time that Carol got Sophia and herself both settled at the table with food and something to drink, everyone else had trickled in. Carol let her eyes flick toward Daryl as he went through the line. He clearly wasn't awake yet and his eyes were still swollen from sleep. He pawed at them as he stood, holding his plate, and following Alice through the line.

Carol snickered to herself, too, when she saw that while he was standing there, Alice was shoveling food onto her plate and his at the same time, just the same as Carol had done in helping Sophia fix her plate, and Daryl wasn't saying anything about it at all.

Anyone who didn't know the doctor might have assumed that she was as equally involved with one brother as she was with the other. But Carol suspected that it might be some kind of deeply ingrained need to care for people that was manifesting itself more than anything.

When those three made it through the table, Carol turned her attention to chatting with others at the table who didn't seem to want to chat too much until they were fed and rehydrated. She didn't know how Daryl would expect her to act and she didn't want to make him uncomfortable by letting him find that she was following him around with her eyes while he was trying to have breakfast.

But he didn't make it easy, because he sat down right in front of her and started to eat his food like a starving man. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him blatantly staring at her, but when she turned to look at him, he would look away.

And in a way, that just made her almost excited, even if she couldn't explain why.

"Woulda slept damn good last night if it weren't for Al's damn snorin'," Merle said to no one and everyone at the same time.

Alice smacked him in the back of the head and Carol was surprised to hear Sophia laugh at them. Sophia was watching the two of them with a broad smile across her face, though. And Merle chuckled in response to the smack and to Sophia's laughter. Carol caught, because she was looking, a quick wink tossed from Merle to Sophia before he took a piece of meat off of Alice's plate and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth all at once.

When Carol turned her head back, glancing in Daryl's direction again, he was smiling slightly. And he was looking right at her. He held it a moment, and then he dropped his eyes back to his food.

Carol felt her cheeks flood with color and she hoped that no one else at the table noticed it.


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**This one gives you a little more view into the "personalities" of the characters that are specific to this fic. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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Carol wandered through the various hallways of the floor they were allowed access to. The building had little to offer in the way of entertainment. Most of it was offices, a good bit of it was closed off with heavy and locked doors, and the whole thing seemed almost like a ghost town.

There was a room that was something like a lounge, and there was a room that was set up to be something of an entertainment room, complete with books and a few board games. Those two rooms were where everyone else could be found.

Except Carol.

Because she wanted to walk around and walking around helped her forget that her new home, so it seemed, was essentially underground like some type of mole hole. All she had to do, really, was not wander far enough that she was incapable of managing to find her way back around all of her twists and turns.

Carol smelled an odd scent as she wandered the halls and followed it. It was cigarette smoke, but it didn't seem as though it would be something that she'd find in a practically abandoned part of the building.

When she stepped into the office, though, she smiled.

Daryl was sitting on a desk, cross legged, smoking and looking at some kind of book or magazine that he'd apparently found.

"You're hiding here to smoke?" Carol asked.

He looked up, surprised, and then he offered her a crooked smile.

"Was smokin' down at the other end," he said. "Damn Lori run my ass out for smokin' 'round her kid."

His face changed slightly.

"Sorry…reckon I was smokin' 'round yours too," he said.

Carol stepped farther into the room and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. She sighed.

"I'm sure it would be better if she weren't around it. Ed smoked around me when I was pregnant, so she's never been away from it…" Carol said, letting her voice trail off for a moment, "but if that's the worst she's around? I'm fine with it. You're going to run out eventually though."

"So when I run out, I run out," Daryl said with a shrug. "Might be the only damn way I ever stay quit."

Carol sat there when the silence fell between them and she looked at him. He held whatever book it was that he was reading in his lap and when he finished his cigarette, he put it out on the desk beside him.

Exhaling the last of the smoke, he closed the book and slid off the surface to stand on his feet on the floor.

And Carol felt like they were at an impasse. They were both fully aware of what was hanging between them. Carol wanted to say something, but she was torn by already feeling so far outside of her comfort zone and thinking that, if she went even farther out, she might not recognize herself at all anymore. Daryl seemed like he wanted to say something too, but he was hovering around actually committing to words.

Carol almost thanked him when it was Daryl that spoke first, even if she hadn't expected him to say what he did, chewing at his thumb like he clearly wasn't certain if it was the right thing to say.

"About last night," he said, "uh…I'm clean an' all…but you got Sophia an'…usually I think about that shit but I was kinda caught by surprise…an' I didn't know if…"

Carol was struck, but she realized immediately what his concern was. She shook her head, still sitting in her chair.

"No," she said. "Don't worry. I'm _clean_ too…and I can't get pregnant."

He raised an eyebrow at her but nodded.

"You're going to tell me you didn't notice the scar?" Carol asked, letting the fact that she wouldn't believe it at all creep into her voice.

Daryl shrugged.

"You mean," he said, and he traced quickly with his fingertip where the scar would be on his body.

Carol nodded and he looked between her and the door like he might escape the office.

"There was a lot of trouble around Sophia's birth," Carol offered. "She was an emergency c-section and then I had a hysterectomy. I can't get pregnant. You don't have anything to worry about."

Daryl shook his head.

"Wasn't worried about me," he said.

Carol got up from her chair and stood near him. He'd been the one to break the ice, whether or not he'd realized that was what he was doing, and she figured that now she could at least address the elephant in the room.

"If I was too forward," she said. "I'm sorry about that. It really isn't like me at all to be like that."

Daryl stared at her and something in his demeanor changed slightly.

"So you didn't mean it?" Daryl asked. "You didn't mean ta do what we done?"

Carol froze. Now she'd insulted him. She'd thought that he might be horrified that she'd flung herself at him like that, but he seemed a little disappointed in the moment that she was apologizing to him. She shook her head quickly. She didn't want to insult him…and she didn't want him to think that she regretted it, at least not if it was something that he didn't regret.

"I didn't mean that," Carol said. "I just meant…I just meant that if you…"

Carol stopped, flustered.

"I didn't mean that I didn't mean to do it," Carol said. "I just wanted you to be comfortable."

Daryl stared at her, chewed his lip, and nodded his head slightly. Then he stepped forward and Carol eased back, not sure what he was going to do. He held up a hand to the side as thought to say that he wasn't carrying anything…even his magazine had been abandoned on the table…and then he touched the side of her face with his knuckles before he kissed her again, a gentle and innocent kiss.

And then, without saying anything else, he turned and walked quickly toward the office door and down the hallway that she'd followed to get there.

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The good news was that they weren't going to die torn apart by the dirty fuckers outside, but they were going to die of boredom. Merle was sure of this. He was also pretty certain that, to date, he was the only one in the group that had thought about the fact that one day they were going to have to go some damn where to get food…the place might be stocked, but if they were waiting to die from old age they were going to run out of shit one way or another.

But he wasn't going to piss on anyone's parade just yet.

Somewhere in the building, Merle had lost Daryl and Alice both. He didn't have a damn clue where they were, but they weren't with him. He was on his own for the day, apparently.

Merle came into the lounge area and found Andrea sitting by herself on the floor, her back against the wall. She'd been that way since just after the breakfast that she refused to eat.

Merle dropped a pack of playing cards that he'd found right in front of Andrea. She looked up at him only after they'd landed with a thud on the floor.

She didn't say anything to him, so Merle sat down on the floor in front of her and took the pack. He opened it, thumbed through the cards to take out the jokers, and then started to shuffle the pack. When he started dealing, Andrea finally spoke.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked.

"Fuck it look like I'm doin'?" Merle asked.

But she didn't touch the cards.

"I don't play cards," she said. "I don't even know how."

"Everybody's gotta learn some damn time," Merle mused. He chuckled to himself and looked around. The few people still lingering in this room looked like they'd either die or fall asleep soon. "Looks like we just come up with enough time for ya to get'cha start."

"I don't really feel like playing cards, Merle," Andrea said.

"Rather fuck?" He asked.

She curled her lip at him and he chuckled and tapped her cards.

She stared at them like they'd burn her instead of like they were simple playing cards.

"Pick 'em up," Merle said. "Step numero uno."

Andrea picked up the cards.

"What are you after, Merle?" Andrea asked with a sigh, her voice barely above a whisper.

Merle looked at her and smiled.

"Hold 'em up," he said. "You don't want me lookin' at'cha cards…you s'posed ta keep 'em hid. I can't see yours…an' you can't see mine."

"This place…it's great, but we're staying here," Andrea said. "We're staying here forever. Do you even have any concept of how long that is? Can you wrap your mind around it? You can't get away from complicated here."

"Look at'cha cards," Merle said. "You ain't worried about me yet…don't be lookin' at me."

Andrea held the cards then and stared at him. Merle laughed to himself.

"Can't play cards ya don't got nothin' ta bet," Merle said. "So…you win…what you want?"

Andrea tipped her head to the side and then looked around the room like she was checking to see if anyone was paying them any attention. Merle followed her gaze. There wasn't a soul paying attention to them. Two people sitting on the floor with a deck of cards wasn't interesting to anyone.

She shrugged.

"I don't want anything," she said. "I want my life back…I want my family back…but I don't think I can win that in a card game."

Merle hummed.

"Ya win, ya get somethin'," Merle said.

"And if you win?" Andrea asked. "What do you get, Merle?"

Merle sucked his teeth.

"There's a whole damn row a' offices at the other end a' that hall out there…whole damn row of 'em an' ain't a soul back there," Merle said. "I always smoke after a good game a' cards. Reckon if someone was lookin' for me…that'd be where the hell they'd find me."

He cleared his throat and rearranged his cards.

"That's what kind of woman you think I am?" Andrea asked, something of a challenge evident in her voice.

Merle loved a challenge.

"Do you really think that I'd sleep with someone over losing a game of poker?" She asked. "You think I'd bet something like that?"

Merle looked at her.

"Didn't say nothin' 'bout a bet," Merle said. "Figure you gonna win…seein' it's ya first damn time an' all..."

He laughed to himself.

"I'd be a real piece a' shit if I didn't make sure ya had a good time ya first time out," Merle said. He winked at her when she looked at him and she curled her lip.

But he got the distinct feeling that it was more for the benefit of anyone looking than a show of true disgust on her part.

"What'cha say, sugar tits? We gon' play cards?" Merle asked.

Andrea sighed loudly and dramatically and rolled her eyes with enough enthusiasm that Merle laughed again.

"How the hell do I do this?" She asked, looking at the cards.

Merle hummed at her.

"That's right," Merle said. "Ole Merle's gonna talk ya through it all…"

He snorted.

"Now gimme all ya damn aces," he said.


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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A few days in the basement of the CDC was long enough to enjoy the thought of never going back out into the big bad world, but that's all it was. It was a thought. It couldn't be the utopian existence that everyone seemed content to believe that it might be.

But it seemed to Alice that she was the only one that had thought of that.

Everyone distracted with one thing or another, Alice took herself on a tour of the facility. The CDC, above all else, was a medical facility. It wasn't the Holiday Inn and it wasn't a scenic bed and breakfast. Things had been treated and studied there that most people would shudder to even know had ever existed.

And Alice was curious about a few things when it came to this place that was supposed to be their Promised Land.

The facility was all but abandoned, as evidenced by the presence of only Jenner. Everyone else was gone…everyone but him.

And that raised some concerns.

But Alice soon realized that anywhere she might like to explore was locked by code. Computers ran and buzzed in a main room, but any that she tried to access demanded from her the thing that she didn't have…a code.

And she knew that this wasn't like trying to break into a coworker's laptop to play around on the internet during some break. She wouldn't dare to try to figure out the code because she didn't know what "getting locked out" might mean for everyone around.

While she was looking around the computer room, checking to see if any happened to be conveniently signed in, she heard the sound of a man clearing his throat and jumped when she turned to find that Jenner had snuck up on her.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Jenner said. He chuckled. "In your case…curiosity killed the Cheshire cat, I suppose."

Alice forced a smile.

"That's what I've heard," she said.

"Dr. Alice Walker," Jenner said. "Publications?"

"I wasn't that important," Alice said. "I published a few graduate level articles, but nothing that anyone else couldn't have figured out."

"Smart lady," Jenner said.

"I have my moments," Alice said.

"It's lunch time," Jenner said. "Your friends are missing you. Aren't you hungry?"

Alice shook her head.

"Not particularly," she said. "How long does it last, anyway?"

"Lunch?" Jenner asked. "Until everyone's done eating, I guess."

Alice shook her head again.

"The food," she said. "How long until the supplies runs out?"

Jenner started to walk away and Alice followed him quickly. He looked back over his shoulder with some irritation, but a little irritation wasn't ever enough to deter her. She followed him to what was clearly his office. He gained access to it with a key that he had and Alice followed him inside.

"You can't answer that?" Alice asked. "How long until the food runs out?"

"The food won't run out," Jenner said. "This place was stocked for years. It was stocked to feed nearly a hundred people for up to a year…and to feed them well."

Alice quickly tried to run through her mind how much food that might be. It would have been enough to save a small country somewhere from starvation, perhaps, but it would run out. Even if it was more food than her brain could even fathom, it would eventually run out.

"But it'll run out," Alice declared. "What happens when the food runs out? We run again?"

Jenner sat down in the plush office chair in his office. For a moment it was as if he'd forgotten her presence entirely. He clearly wasn't going to answer her inquiries about the food.

"I told you," he said. "Those doors aren't opening again. Don't worry about the food."

Alice perched on the arm of one of the chairs in his office that would have been used with whomever he needed to have any sort of conversation with during business hours. She clearly wasn't the person he wanted to see sitting in those chairs.

"How can I not worry about starvation?" Alice asked. "My friends and I starving to death? It just so happens that it's pretty damn important to me."

Jenner smiled.

"It shouldn't be," he said. "You won't starve. The food isn't running out."

And Alice suddenly had a very good feeling that this was as close as she might ever come to having tea with the Mad Hatter himself. She chuckled to herself.

"I have another question for you," Alice said.

"Of course you do," Jenner said with some irritation. "You're impertinent that way. What is it?"

"How is a raven like a writing desk?" Alice asked.

Jenner looked at her and she raised her eyebrows at him. And he smiled so she mirrored his expression. But it worked enough to make him laugh a little and change the level of guard that he had up.

"Where did everyone else go?" Alice asked.

"I told you," Jenner said. "They're at lunch."

"Your coworkers," Alice said. "The CDC was never a one man operation. It was also never stocked for a hundred people to remain when there was only going to be one man here. Where are the others?"

Jenner tried to ignore her. Since she wasn't going anywhere, though, he finally rolled his eyes up in her direction and put his elbows on the desk between them like he was about to tell her what the results of her tests were.

"They opted out," Jenner said. "I told you that."

"How?" Alice asked.

"Excuse me?" Jenner asked.

"How did they opt out?" Alice asked. "Do you have weapons here? Did they leave or did they commit suicide? How did they opt out?"

When he raised an eyebrow at her, Alice smiled again.

"Morbid curiosity," she offered with a shrug.

"Some left," Jenner said, "in the early days. After that? They hung themselves mostly. Is that morbid enough for you?"

Alice nodded her head.

"How did you get the Walkers?" Alice asked.

"I'm going to have to ask you to excuse me," Jenner said. "I'm sure you'll understand. I'm really quite busy."

Alice stood up and put her hands on the desk, leaning down close to his face.

"You're not busy," she said. "You don't have a single thing to do. This place is almost closed down. You and I both know that. Just like we know the food is going to run out one day. How did you get the Walkers for the experiments? They had to come from somewhere."

Jenner stared at her. He was clearly not a man who liked to be confronted. He was the kind of man who had probably turned up his nose at the thought of women in science. Alice knew the kind. She'd had one as a mentor once…if mentor was even the proper word for it.

"If you haven't noticed, Dr. Walker," Jenner said, hissing out her name despite the boredom he heaped into his other words, "they're everywhere. They're not entirely hard to come by."

"So you went outside and you caught them?" Alice asked. "With your bare hands?"

She couldn't explain it, but there was something off about Jenner. There was something that was making her uncomfortable out him. He didn't seem to have the personality to do something like kill someone, but there was something about him that seemed just off enough that she couldn't discredit the possibility entirely.

What was certain was that he'd been doing experiments on Walkers, to try to understand everything that happened to them, and he'd mentioned to that to them all. What he hadn't mentioned, really, was how he got the Walkers or how long he kept them hanging about.

And Alice was beginning to wonder if he might have infected his own coworkers to keep feeding his need to experiment.

And if that was the case…what if they'd just walked into his trap like rats?

"The test subjects were volunteers," Jenner said. "Experiments were done on people, just like with every other disease studied within these walls, who willingly donated their bodies to science. Their reanimation occurred in controlled environments."

Alice walked past him and over to the window of his office that looked out over the computer room. Once he might have supervised people from that window. Now he was supervising empty chairs and computers. The people out there were nothing more than ghosts at best.

"What made you stay?" Alice asked. She turned around and looked at the man.

"I believe it's time for you to go, isn't it? Surely your friends are curious about where you are," Jenner responded.

"They don't care about me," Alice said. "I'm just an extra they picked up somewhere…nothing important."

Jenner held her eyes a moment.

"Why did you stay?" Alice asked. "What made you stay when everyone else was bailing out? Did you love your job that much?"

"Did you love yours that much?" Jenner asked.

"I left," Alice said. "If you haven't noticed…I'm not in a hospital anymore. I think the guys with the big guns trying to shoot me were like my eviction notice. But not you…you stayed. Why?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" Jenner asked with a chuckle.

"Character flaw," Alice responded. It wasn't the first time someone had asked her the same thing.

"I stayed because I believed what I was doing," Jenner said. "I made a promise that I would stay. I made a promise to someone special that I would stay until there was a cure. I'd stay until the end. Whichever came first."

Alice heard something in his voice and she was struck because his words made sense to her. They made more sense to her than she really liked admitting anything this man said made to her.

"Who was it?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter," Jenner said. "I let her down anyway. There's no cure…now there's just waiting for the end. And then…"

"And then?" Alice asked.

"And then we become one of them…" Jenner said.

"In here?" Alice asked. "Not unless you infect yourself."

Jenner looked at her and offered her a smile that almost looked like grin of the Cheshire cat that he'd mentioned earlier.

"It's time for you to be going, Alice," he said. "It's almost tea time."

Alice narrowed her eyes at him.

"Just one more question," Alice said.

Jenner stood up and slammed his hands on his desk.

"I am tired of your questions! Don't you understand? They don't matter anyway! Nothing you can ask me matters anymore! The world is gone! It's over, Alice! It's over for me and it's over for you…and it's over for every one of them. There's nothing left! Why do you care enough to ask questions that can't be answer?" Jenner asked.

"Because you care enough to ignore questions that can be answered," Alice responded. "How long do we stay here before we're going to be forced to leave? How long do we stay here before we're out of food? How long does the electricity last? There is still a world out there, even if it doesn't look like one we've seen before. So how long are we in here before we hit the road again? How comfortable do we let everyone get?"

Jenner got up quickly and rushed to her fast enough that Alice thought he might attack her. She backed up, tripped over her own foot, and slammed into the wall behind her. She might have slid down it, but Jenner caught a hand and hauled her back up on her feet. He smiled at her.

"You remind me of someone I used to know," he said, his voice lower. "She was like you…at it until the end. But her end came too."

Alice swallowed, but she didn't dare to respond, unsure of what the man might do at the moment.

"Come here," he said, tugging her by her arm.

Alice followed him and he pointed to something that looked like a clock on the wall, except it was ticking down like a digital hourglass.

"That's how comfortable you can get," he said. "Get comfortable. That's it. That's the end of it all. The food won't run out…the electricity will…and that tells you when."

Alice looked at it, closed her eyes, and looked at it again. If it was right, they had less than an hour ticking down.

"And what?" Alice asked. "We're…we're leaving?"

The pounding in her chest told her that wasn't what they were doing, though.

Jenner laughed at her and then he squeezed her arm tight. He nearly yelled at her, probably in pent up frustration from her earlier line of questions.

"This is the CDC, Alice," Jenner yelled. "You're a smart woman. Every disgusting, noxious, deadly germ known to man has passed through these walls…plagues that would wipe out the world if any of it were left. What do you think happens when it can no longer be contained? Decontamination."

Alice didn't have to ask for clarification. She knew exactly how something like this would be decontaminated, and it wasn't with rubbing alcohol.

"We have to leave," she said. "We've got to get out before…"

"NO!" Jenner yelled. "Don't you understand? It's fast…it's quick. It's painless. Let them be happy until they go. Don't tell them. If you tell them then they'll do what? Go back out there? Your leader begged me to come in here! They want this."

Alice shook her head at him.

"You can't just kill everyone!" She screamed back at him. "Are you fucking crazy?!"

"You can't leave," Jenner said. "The doors won't open. We're already under lockdown. There's no way out. You might as well sit down and calm down while you wait."

Alice snatched away from him and fled the space, running in the direction of the place she hoped all her friends were gathered to heat. Maybe Jenner was right…hell…maybe she'd slipped right on down the rabbit hole after all.

But they had to try.


	24. Chapter 24

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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Daryl didn't know what was happening when Alice came barreling into the room, screaming in such a way that he would have believed that Walkers were in hot pursuit of her if he didn't know that they were locked away, safe and sound, underground.

Most of them were congregated in the recreation room, now more or less their living room, and were recovering from eating more at lunch than they'd been accustomed to eating for days. Her loud and hysterical arrival immediately pricked everyone and Daryl, out of instinct, rushed for the crossbow that he'd left by the door just in case there were to be some kind of unforeseen attack.

Whatever it was, it was serious enough that Alice wasn't making sense. Her words were coming out in broken pieces and most of what Daryl could get was that she thought they were leaving.

Before he could get to her, Shane got to Alice and caught her in something between a bear hug and wrestling move, forcing her to stay still and inhale.

"What the hell is wrong?" He asked.

"We…have…to go…NOW!" Alice coughed out. "He's going to kill us! We have to go! NOW!"

Daryl, like the rest of them, thought that she'd lost her mind. The world that they were living in now seemed more than able to do that to someone and really it was just a matter of time before someone went stark raving mad. He was surprised, though, that it had been Alice to be the first to crack.

Alice continued her protests, some pitiful crying urgings that they all leave right this very minute or else they were all going to die, and everyone else tried to figure out what to do. There was no way, it seemed, to get her to abandon her urgency long enough to explain to anyone what it was that had brought her to a point where she believed the things that she was saying.

Jenner came to the door and Daryl, not wanting to take any chances that Alice might not have lost her mind and the man, rather, might be the lunatic, raised his crossbow in the man's direction.

"What the hell is she goin' on about?" He asked.

Jenner smiled. It wasn't a comforting smile. It was the kind of smile that always made Daryl want to punch the person wearing it in the face because it held more mocking in it than their words could ever actually express.

"I guess you'll find out," he said. "She's starting to calm down a little. The CDC is a facility for exploring and dealing with the most noxious diseases known to man. It was never meant to last forever. In the event of the end of civilization, the goal of the place was to keep going, only long enough to find a cure to whatever was happening. If there were a cure…"

"It's going to blow the fuck up!" Alice spat. Gaining her voice and her strength with the sobering nature of his words. She struggled against the hold that Shane had on her. "He's going to blow us the fuck up in less than a damn hour if we don't get our asses the fuck out of here! We have to go now!"

There was a moment where everyone watched the struggle between the brunette and the man twice her size, but then it was as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown over them all and sent them reeling back into realization and animation.

Daryl realized what she was saying and believed it. The madman in the basement was going to blow them up.

"MOVE!" He yelled out, even as he heard Rick start some kind of protesting speech to everyone else. Daryl moved to find Carol and Sophia and to push them into some kind of action, but they were ahead of him. Carol pushed Sophia out the door and they ran for their close by rooms. Daryl ran for his and their movement seemed to cause a stir among the others.

Shane must have released Alice because she ran screaming into the hallway that there wasn't time to pack. There was time to grab, perhaps, and there was time to run if they wanted to live.

Jenner was yelling protests. The doors were locked. They couldn't get out, they were locked in.

"Open the fuckin' doors, asshole!" Merle spat, nothing on him but his weapons, but he was probably little worried about supplies at the moment.

"You don't understand," Jenner said. "They won't open. They're locked. Everything's sealed. The clock is ticking down. Don't fight this. It's fast and painless. There's nothing for you out there."

Daryl didn't hear the rest of the maniac's speech. He ran into the hallway and pushed Carol in front of him as she pushed a frightened and almost hysterical Sophia. Others followed suit and Daryl turned back only when he heard Andrea protesting loudly that she wouldn't go.

Daryl tugged at her and tried to talk reason into her quickly and frantically. Everyone else scrambled about, pulling their loved ones. Daryl sent Carol and Sophia ahead and tried to get Merle's attention away from the obviously suicidal blonde that had fallen into some kind of declaration that she wasn't going to go. She had nothing to live for.

"Leave her the fuck alone, Merle!" Daryl growled. "Let her blow her fuckin' ass up if she don't wanna live. Let's move!"

Daryl was torn for the moment between running after Carol and Sophia, toward whatever future this life might have for them, and hanging back with his brother…the only thing that had ever even been semi constant in his life.

"Go on! Get the damn doors open!" Merle spat back.

Daryl hesitated a moment longer, pleading with Merle to move, hearing in his head the ticking down of the clock that Jenner had spoken of.

Merle surprised him, heaving the blonde up and slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes that was hell bent on fighting back…fighting for the loss of her life as hard as anyone else might have fought to kept theirs.

"Move brother!" Merle called at him, rushing toward him, not even trying at the moment to calm the angry protests of the woman he was heaving along.

And seeing Merle move motivated Daryl to move. He ran up the stairs that the others were already climbing and, as he came out on the first floor, he was slammed with the words of those trying to escape already.

Things they already knew…the doors were locked. He threw himself into one of the doors and tried to sling it open to no avail. They were closed tight and probably beyond them were the heavy roll down doors that would have stopped them even if they'd made it through the first barrier.

Daryl pulled his crossbow in front of him and ran down the halls looking for the one thing that he hoped this building had at this moment. When his eyes fell on the red box, tucked in the corner connecting some of the long forgotten hallways, he used the butt of his crossbow to break the glass and freed the axe from inside it before he strapped on the bow and jogged back to where T-Dog and Shane were trying to break the glass with chairs they'd found somewhere.

In the chaos and confusion around them, Daryl couldn't make out the words of hardly anyone. There was nothing more than the panicked din of screaming and crying…the sounds of people facing the unwanted end of their lives with their freedom in sight and just beyond a thick glass window.

Daryl ran toward the window and beat at it with his axe, but the glass deflected his blows and sent the force of them back into his body, jarring his bones and clacking his teeth.

But he was desperate. He was desperate to escape himself, and he was desperate to get everyone else to safety. They hadn't come this far to be blown up by a madman who thought that sitting calmly in the middle of a bomb was the best that the world had to offer them.

Daryl didn't know if the world had much to offer them, and maybe Jenner was right, but he'd gotten a taste of something that he hadn't ever had before…shallow and useless as it may be in this new world…and he wasn't ready to give it up just when it was so new to him. He was getting out of there, and he was taking Carol and Sophia with him, hoping that the others followed.

"Wait!" Carol called, her voice echoing in the room over the protests of Rick and Shane who were ready to give up and were almost snickering at Daryl's continued efforts against the un-giving windows. "I've got something that might help!"

"It's gonna take more than a nail file, Carol!" Shane snapped back.

And for a moment Daryl fought the urge to turn the axe he was swinging on the man instead of the window…but there wasn't time for that.

And it wasn't necessary, either, because what Carol produced…not a nail file by any means…did a better job of introducing Shane to the plate of crow he needed to eat than the axe might have done.

In her hand, shaking with everything happening around them, Carol held a grenade.

It was maybe the only chance.

"I found it that first morning when Rick came," Carol said. "In his clothes. I kept it."

Rick took the grenade without discussion and yelled at everyone to prepare. They dropped in a scramble to the floor as fast as they could. Daryl hit the ground and covered his head, unable to locate anyone else at the moment, and hoped that they all had the sense to do the same.

The explosion was deafening, the heat coming off of the blown grenade was a blazing cloud, and Daryl felt the bite and sting of being pelted by what he hoped were pieces of the stubborn window.

Scrambling to his feet and seeing the window was open, Daryl grabbed up his weapons and got to where Carol was herding Sophia around by her shoulder, everyone obviously too confused and overwhelmed to function well. He pushed her toward the window.

"Let's go, we gotta get outta here!" He called at her, making sure she made it toward the front of the group of people now leaping from the window.

He turned back a moment, but Merle wasn't anywhere to be seen. Daryl knew he couldn't wait on him…but he'd never forgive him if his dumb ass brother did something so stupid as to throw away his life for a suicidal woman that would never think a damn thing of him anyway.

He couldn't wait, though. He had weapons and Carol didn't…out there the Walkers were swarming, drawn by the sound of the explosion. He leapt out the window and double timed his steps, catching up with Carol and Sophia and swinging the axe as he went, chopping down anything that dared to get near them.

He cleared the way back toward his truck, barely breathing from exhaustion at this point, and pushed Carol and Sophia into it, slamming their door. He ran around and climbed inside, tight against them, before he dared to look back and take some type of inventory of the others that were running for any vehicle they could reach.

"Fuckin' Merle!" He spat without thinking about it and turned back to look at the building.

He didn't know how many minutes were left on the clock, but he could hear it ticking down in his head. He could hear time running out for his stupid ass brother.

"There he comes!" Carol yelped.

And sure enough, Daryl saw Merle throw Andrea out of the window before jumping out and landing beside her on the ground.

Whatever quest she'd had for death, she must have lost in an instant. She hit her feet as quickly as he did and ran as fast as she could toward the vehicles with him hot on her heels. Even the Walkers in their vicinity weren't a threat because they couldn't have caught them with the speed that both of them achieved.

When the building blew with a force that was strong enough to shake the ground, both of them hit the ground in a lump.

The explosion was unbelievable. It was something that Daryl might have expected to see in a movie, but never in his real life. The huge place that had been meant to be their paradise was gone now…completely gone…nothing more but the burning remains and a crater in the ground.

And he laughed to himself when Merle got up, probably having pissed his pants or come damn close to it, and did something of a bow…clearly laughing over the surprise of being alive. He snatched Andrea up from the ground by her arm and the two of them walked, wobbling like newborn calves on shaky legs, toward his bike.

Daryl thought Merle would never get the damn thing to crank with his nerves like they were…but somehow he did. And he pulled off with no more fanfare than that. Daryl cranked his truck and followed suit, his brother guiding them on down the road toward whatever might come, leaving behind the memory of the CDC and the explosion that had, by some grace, taken nothing from them than a few replaceable belongings and a madman that was determined to go to his death in a true blaze of glory.


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: Here you go, another little chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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"You gonna sit over there an' act like you don't know me now?" Daryl asked when, apparently, he was tired of the silence in the cab of the truck.

They'd stopped along the road and found a house that they'd cleaned out to hold up in for the night. Some of the group was choosing to lock themselves in the RV, feeling the space was safest. Others, though, had chosen to trade the comfort that the house offered over the chance that they might be safer locked into one of the vehicles.

Choosing a compromise between the truck and the house, going for safety and comfort, Carol had requested that they make room for Sophia in the RV. She felt like it was the safest place that they had to offer and it was certainly more comfortable for the girl to be able to actually lie down than it was for her to sleep sitting up in the truck.

But Carol hadn't expected that they'd tell her that the space was at full capacity and that anyone else in would mean that someone who had called "dibs" on the space first would have to trade out. Carol didn't feel comfortable asking anyone in there to give up their spot for her, so she'd simply asked Lori to keep a watchful eye on Sophia while she slept and not to let the girl leave the space for anything.

And she'd been planning on sleeping in the house with those that were gathering there…until Daryl had asked her to stay with him.

She still wasn't entirely sure why she said, yes, but she had. And now she was in the cab of the truck, supposedly trying to sleep after all the insanity of the day and their fleeing from the CDC, but she wasn't feeling very much like sleeping.

"I know you," Carol said. "I wasn't pretending I don't…but…I have to admit, I don't know what we do from here."

Daryl hummed and leaned his head against the glass of the truck window.

"You mean? What you mean? On the road where we goin' or…?" Daryl asked.

Carol heard when his voice trailed off leaving his unfinished statement floating out there in the air surrounding them in the truck.

He didn't know how to ask what she meant and she wasn't even sure how to say what she meant. Together they were doing phenomenal on all counts.

"We could've died today," Carol said. "All of us…"

Carol knew it and yet she still had a hard time believing it. They could have all died right there in the explosion. It was so close that if death had been something tangible, she could have reached out and touched it. She and Sophia both could have simply ceased to exist…and the same was true for everyone else.

The thought was almost too much to take in and with the passing of the overload of adrenaline out of her system, Carol was finding that it almost seemed like this morning was one of her most distant memories, or even as though it hadn't happened at all. It was almost like some kind of strange nightmare that she'd had.

It felt odd, too, to imagine what kind of conversation could even be deemed appropriate after something like what had happened to them. She'd spent most of her ride reminding Sophia how much she loved her, holding her close and kissing her, snuggling into her…thankful that she was safe and in her arms.

Now it was simply hard to imagine what conversation might be appropriate. Everything seemed like it would simply be out of place. Nothing would really fit…or maybe anything would, really.

"We could die any day," Daryl said. "Hell…it was always true. Just more true now, I reckon."

It was true, they could die any day before all of this, but it was much more in front of their faces now than it once had been.

Carol didn't respond. She didn't know how to respond to that. Luckily enough, she didn't have to because Daryl started speaking again.

"I didn't wanna die today," he said. "Didn't want you ta die neither, or ya lil' girl."

Carol chuckled to herself. It was a nice thought, even if it might have been worded differently.

"You didn't want me to die?" Carol asked with some amusement at his failure to word things probably like he meant them. "I appreciate that."

Daryl laughed too.

"Didn't come out like I meant it to," he said. "But, no, I didn't want you ta die. That lil' girl don't deserve nothin' like that neither. And…I don't know…hell, like havin' you around."

Carol hadn't ever really thought that a declaration that simple might be that flattering, but at the moment it was remarkably flattering. The simple sincerity behind the words, perhaps, was what made it all the more meaningful. There wasn't anything being put on there. It was a simple declaration. Daryl liked having her, and Sophia too obviously, around.

"Is that why you asked me to stay with you in the truck tonight?" Carol asked. "Because you like having me around?"

Daryl hummed at her.

"You said you weren't sorry about what happened at that place," Daryl said. "About what happened with me. You still ain't sorry about it? Now that we out here again?"

"I'm not sorry about it," Carol said, shaking her head. "I enjoyed it."

She laughed to herself.

"I guess I might say I'm not the kind of person who does that sort of thing," Carol said after a moment, "but I guess maybe I am."

Daryl opened the truck door and got out. Carol watched him in the darkness. She saw his lighter flare up and knew that he was smoking and then she heard him digging around what little supplies they had…what little supplies they'd brought from inside the house after they'd cleared it and gone quickly through every closet space the place had to offer.

He was getting a blanket. He threw it into the truck, almost on top of Carol, and then he got in and locked the door again, cranking the window so that he could smoke out of the crack of it.

"So you weren't the kind that done that sorta thing," Daryl said after he was settled again. Carol halfway folded and halfway balled the blanket up and put it between them. She wasn't ready to go to sleep yet and it didn't look like he was either. It looked like he had simply gotten the blanket while he was thinking about it.

He finished his cigarette in silence and Carol guarded her own silence. When he flicked the butt out of the crack of the window, he rolled it up and chewed at his thumb.

"I weren't the kind that done that sorta thing neither," Daryl said. "Least…I don't think so. Guess that shit changes too, don't it?"

Carol laughed at him and glanced at him. He cracked a small smile, the corner of his lip curling up at her.

"Is that why you asked me to sleep in the truck?" Carol asked.

"That's the second time you asked me that," Daryl said. "You was the kinda person asked everything twice?"

"Were you the kind of person that never answered a question that you were asked?" Carol shot back.

She got a repeat of the half smile. Daryl nipped at his fingernail again, now resting his elbow on the steering wheel.

"What you want me ta say?" He asked. "I asked ya ta stay in the truck 'cause I wanted you ta stay with me in the truck. Ain't had no damn master plan."

Carol laughed.

"Did you think we were going to…" Carol squirmed a little in her spot, there was something exciting about the exchange, "sleep together, Daryl?"

Daryl hissed out in a laugh.

"Yeah," he hummed. "I did…what the hell was you gonna do all night? Stay awake?"

Carol gave him a look that she knew that he could see only as clearly as she could see his expressions in the dim light, and that wasn't too well.

"I wasn't talking about sleeping," Carol said. "You know that."

He hummed.

"You ain't that kinda woman," he said.

And suddenly, somehow, without her even knowing how he'd done it, Daryl Dixon had turned it around on her. Now, if they _were_ going to do anything besides actually sleep, she was going to have to be the one to ask. And the worst part of it was that even though he was biting back the smile, Carol could tell that it amused him.

"Fine," she said. "I guess that means that we'll go to sleep."

He chuckled quietly and covered it by clearing his throat.

"Almost died today," Daryl said. "Lotsa shit's bound ta happen wouldn't normally happen…wouldn't have a damn thing ta do with the kinda person someone is…would have ta do with the fact that we almost fuckin' died."

Carol thought about it for a moment. Her heart was pounding in her chest over the possibility. She almost felt like he might be able to hear it in the small cab of the truck. She swallowed and checked her nerves as best she could, ashamed that she was a grown woman and something like this…whatever it was…had the ability to make her feel like this.

"What would everyone say?" Carol asked.

"Everyone who?" Daryl asked.

"Everyone," Carol said with a shrug.

"Merle's in the damn car behind us…your old car ain't it? Fuckin' the hell outta that blonde wanted ta die today," Daryl said. "Don't sound ta me like she's thinkin' 'bout dyin' right now."

Carol turned around in her seat and looked out the back window. She couldn't see enough of the car parked behind them to know what was going on, though.

"They're in the house," Carol said.

"Musta ducked out ta…take a piss," Daryl said. "Crack ya damn window an' listen…you might catch the grand finale ya care that damn much."

"I don't care," Carol admitted.

"An' that's what the hell they'd say," Daryl said, biting his thumb again. "Don't care…but I ain't tryin' ta sell you nothin'. You wanna sleep? Let's sleep. I'm dog ass tired anyway."

As if he was declaring that all there was to it, Daryl wiggled around and put his legs up in the seat in what was clearly an uncomfortable position, his back against the driver's side window. He hissed out a breath after he was in the odd position.

"Be a hell of a lot more comfortable if you could be the kinda woman willin' ta crawl on up here an' sleep with me," Daryl said. "Hell…slept in this truck with Alice an' Merle a good long time…ain't shit happened then."

Carol sucked in a breath and nodded. She moved her body and found her way toward him, stopping when she realized there wasn't anywhere to put her hands to keep moving. And there wasn't anywhere to put her body, either.

"How do we do this?" She asked.

Daryl stretched his legs out where he wanted them and grabbed her under the arms, heaving her up toward him and onto his body with the same kind of motion she might have used to move Sophia when she was very small and still light enough to pull around with ease.

Carol tensed, his body warm under hers, and worried that he was going to be uncomfortable with her here, using him essentially like a mattress.

"I weigh too much for this," Carol declared.

Daryl wrestled the blanket he'd kicked in the foot on top of them.

"Spread this out an' lay down," he said. "You don't weigh too much…too damn skinny an' ya bones poke me when you worry."

Carol stayed still for a moment and then she chuckled to herself and did what he asked, fixing the blanket over them both. It smelled like moth balls…a strange contrast to the smell of the air around them and the smell of the man that she settled down on top of.

"Are you comfortable?" Carol asked after a minute.

He hummed.

She put her head down on his shoulder, just near his neck.

"I guess we're sleeping together?" Carol said with a chuckle.

Daryl hummed again.

"Goodnight, Daryl," Carol offered.

He hummed at her again and Carol took that as her goodnight from the man who was still very much a mystery to her...but a mystery that she hoped one day to solve.


	26. Chapter 26

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter. I hope you enjoy!**

**I'm putting this out here as I keep updating. I have been absent because of real life, and I'm likely to be absent again. Things might not be as regular as I would like them to be, but I'm not abandoning anything. I'll update when I can.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Carol woke up only because she could feel that her bed…which was really Daryl, though she'd forgotten how they'd fallen asleep when she'd lost herself in probably a deeper sleep than was prudent in their current situation…was shifting around.

She tried to lift herself off of him before she was even fully conscious, aware of the fact that she was probably too heavy for him, but he caught her around the arm with a hand.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "Weren't trying to wake you up."

Carol looked around. It was morning, though it hadn't been morning for long. The light was just breaking through the sky and the night wasn't a distant memory yet. There was no one stirring around them other than a Walker that was right outside the window of the truck, almost pressing its disgusting, half-rotted face against the glass.

Carol groaned at the creature and then remembered that she was trying to stop squishing Daryl…and she was suddenly aware that he was dealing with other situations of the morning, and he was clearly trying to keep her from noticing it.

She decided not to say anything about it since he was clearly trying to shift his body away from her.

"It's OK," she said. "I need to check on Sophia."

Daryl groaned and helped Carol off him.

"Gotta take a piss," he said. "I can check on her if you wanna just stay in here."

"I have to pee too," Carol admitted, suddenly needing to go worse now that it had been presented to her as a possibility.

Daryl looked at her, his eyes still swolled with sleep, and for a moment she thought that he looked like he didn't believe that she even went to bathroom and less likely that she was suggesting that she might need to go with him.

But then he seemed to snap out of his sleepy consideration of the fact that she might have to relieve herself and he grunted at her, a sound of approval. He twisted enough in the seat to get a look at the Walker that was hovering outside the window.

"You might oughta go out with me," he said. "Don't think you'd do good ta go on ya own."

"I could go on my own," Carol said, defensively. "I can take care of myself."

Daryl chuckled.

"Might can," he said, "but that don't mean you gotta be dumb about it."

Both of them shifted around, finding themselves now out of their twisted position and into a position of sitting side by side.

"Come on," Daryl said. "Get…a knife or…what you got?"

"I have a knife," Carol said.

"Get that…let's go," Daryl said. "I'll get rid a' this dirty bastard an' we'll hope he ain't got no friends waitin' over there in the trees."

And that was all the discussion that seemed necessary to Daryl because he spilled out of the truck, killed the Walker that was loitering outside, and then practically pulled Carol out behind him. She followed him quickly, closing the truck door behind her, and then trotted with him across the road and down into the bushes on the other side of the bank.

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"Don't think I don't know what you was doin' all damn night," Merle growled to Daryl when they'd dismissed themselves to go hunting in an attempt to bring something back for the group to eat. They were staying put, parked in one place, for at least a few nights. There was really nothing else to do. They had no idea where they were going and no idea what their next plan of attack was. The group wasn't much in the practice of moving, keeping to the road, in the way that Daryl, Merle, and Alice had been, so it seemed easier to simply keep them in one spot until they had some idea of a destination that they were trying to make.

Daryl hated to admit, though, that while he heard Rick and Shane talking about some magical destination that they might find…now a military base to replace the CDC…he was almost convinced that there was simply nowhere left to go. They could travel until the road ran out, but they weren't going to simply drive right up into some kind of magical land where they left behind everything that they'd seen and done so far.

But, for the time being, they were simply camping and hoping that Rick, who had pretty much put himself in the position of being their unquestioned leader, would figure out what they could do to save themselves from the situation they were in.

"Weren't doin' nothin' all damn night," Daryl responded, momentarily bored by his brother. He'd rather be hunting alone, but he couldn't do that with the world that it was now. He'd even rather be back at camp…at least then he was in the company of better conversationalists than Merle Dixon. "I was sleepin' all damn night. Not like you…checkin' out the damn shocks on that car."

Merle chuckled to himself.

"You tellin' me you ain't tastin' that pussy?" Merle asked. "End a' the fuckin' world, lil' brother."

Daryl made a face at Merle. Merle laughed in response and hummed at him.

"Mmm hmmm…lil' brother done got him a taste a' somethin' he likes? 'Bout damn time, Derlina. I was beginnin' ta wonder if ya ass knew what the hell ta do with it," Merle said, crunching through the leaves in front of him without a care.

"I know what the hell ta do with it, Merle," Daryl said. "I just don't feel the fuckin' need ta do it with every woman I meet. What the hell's gonna happen? When you done with that blonde you just had ta up an' save? What the hell happens then?"

Merle hummed.

"Fuck…don't matter," Merle said. "What the hell's gonna happen? Look around ya, lil' brother. We all gonna die for too long."

"Then why save the blonde?" Daryl asked, stopping his steps long enough to kill a Walker that was ambling toward them, another not two feet away. They were thicker in the woods and Daryl had an odd sensation that they were going somewhere. In fact, it seemed almost like the mindless corpses had more of an idea of a destination than they did. "You really believe we all gonna die, why the hell'd you save the blonde?"

Merle didn't respond, but his facial expression did change slightly. He grunted and continued walking in the direction they were going. He believed they were tracking deer. At best they would probably come back with a raccoon or two.

Merle's chosen silence on the matter spoke more volumes than his words might have. Merle Dixon could talk his way out of anything, but often his words were bullshit. Sometimes it was a good rule of thumb that Merle's silences held a lot more actual information than anything that came spilling out of his mouth.

He didn't believe they were all going to die…but he wanted to. Believing they were all going to die would make it easier to accept if they did. It was the same old song and dance with Merle…and maybe with Daryl too. Not getting attached, or at least pretending not to be attached, would make the loss easier. Not caring would make it not hurt. Not getting hopes up meant that they could only be dashed so hard against the rocks of reality.

If you didn't feel anything, you couldn't feel the things that you didn't want to feel.

The problem was that you couldn't avoid feeling. The numbness was an act. The feelings were real. The attachment, the caring, and the hope…they were all real. And so was everything that followed when they were destroyed.

But you would never get Merle Dixon to admit that. And Daryl wasn't going to press because he didn't want to admit, at least not aloud, that he and his brother were very different in some ways, but they were very much alike in others.

They guarded silence for a long time. They guarded silence while they killed the approaching Walkers, while they hunted down a few squirrels and four rabbits, and then they guarded it on the way back to camp while they killed more Walkers.

And Daryl felt it was safe to change the subject because it was clear that his brother, though he'd been the one to introduce the earlier conversation, didn't want to continue in the vein that they'd been talking about before.

"It seem ta you that them nasty things is headed somewhere?" Daryl asked.

Merle grunted.

"Our camp," Merle said, matter of factly. "I'm pretty damn sure they can smell us. They smell the whole damn bunch of us."

"You reckon they can see?" Daryl asked.

Merle hummed.

"Gotta see somethin' or they asses'd be stuck up against damn trees an' shit," Merle said. "They can see. Prob'ly can smell."

"You think they can hear too?" Daryl asked.

As something of a test, perhaps, Merle whistled sharply at two that were close by and hadn't seemed to notice them yet. The sharp whistle he let out snatched the attention of the two Walkers and Daryl and Merle planted their steps to wait for them to walk toward them, each of them stabbing the nasty son of a bitch that got closest to them.

"Can hear too," Merle said nonchalantly as he cleaned his knife off on his pants.

"What you reckon that means?" Daryl asked. "I mean…if they can hear us, smell us, an' see us…we ever gettin' away from 'em?"

Merle hummed again.

"Only if we outrun 'em," Merle said. "They pretty damn slow."

"Sittin' in one damn place, though," Daryl said. "Ain't gonna work. We just…hell…we ducks on the water, Merle. We just waitin' for the fuckers ta walk up an' pick what they like best ta eat."

Merle chuckled.

"I knowed that for a while, Daryl," Merle said. "You just now catchin' up?"

Daryl chewed his lip. No, he wasn't just catching up. He was just verifying some of his suspicions for himself, perhaps, but he wasn't just catching up.

"Rick an' Shane," Daryl commented, "they still think we goin' somewhere else. They still figurin' we gonna find some military base an' the government's gonna just up an' save us all."

Merle chuckled. Daryl didn't believe it any more than his brother did, but he didn't find their situation as humorous, perhaps, as his brother did. Or maybe he wasn't hiding behind his laughter at the moment.

Merle stopped his steps without explanation and Daryl followed suit. Merle turned to look at him, his face set with seriousness.

"Government ain't savin' nobody," Merle said. "Don't know if they ever have before…but they sure as shit ain't savin' nobody now. If they was, you think they'da blowed up they big ole science building like that? We're on our own now, brother. We live or we die…that shit's on us. Ain't on no damn government no more. Ain't on no military. We live or we die, that's on us."

"You don't think there's safety at no base, do you?" Daryl asked, already knowing the answer.

Merle hummed at him again.

"Might be," Merle said with a shrug. "They prob'ly still there…but they ain't no government comin' out ta give us no ticker tape welcome."

Daryl chuckled at that and Merle echoed it.

"We find a base," Merle said, "we might just make that shit work…hell…block it off...I don't fuckin' know. But what the hell we got right now? Right now we just settin' up ta get eat. These fuckers ain't gonna stop comin', so we ain't got much choice but ta keep goin'."

"You gonna tell Rick an' Shane that?" Daryl asked. "They set on us campin' until they figure out where the hell we headed next."

Merle hummed again and looked around, turning his body in a full circle as he looked around the wooded area that surrounded him.

"They ain't comin' fast," he said. "Reckon it ain't gonna hurt ta let 'em live in they little fairy tale a day or so. Get us somethin' good ta eat. They decide ta hit the road before long, ain't no need ta break it to 'em that they got 'em some damn pipe dreams goin' on. They'll figure that shit out soon enough."

"So we just hang out for a couple days, Merle? Knowin' all the damn time that the damn nasty assholes is comin' for us? We just hang out an' pretend we don't know what the hell we doin' until they decide it's a good damn idea ta shake it on down the road a piece?" Daryl asked.

Merle picked up his steps and headed on toward the camp.

"Do what the hell we always done, Daryl," Merle said. "Get what the hell we can outta right now…'cause they ain't no guarantees for tomorrow."

Merle stopped again, looking over his shoulder at Daryl and Daryl had to stop his steps quicker than he'd planned to keep from plowing into his brother's broad back.

"'Sides…folks like Rick an' Shane? They ain't listenin' to a couple damn idiots like you an' me…ain't no damn body gonna listen ta you an' me," Merle said.

And Daryl knew that it wasn't that Merle was trying to dig for some kind of compliment, and he wasn't trying to dig for some kind of affirmation. He wasn't even pitying himself or Daryl with his statement. He was just bluntly presenting the truth. People like Rick and Shane…and probably a good number of other people that made up the group they were travelling with…made up their minds about how things were and often lived convinced that their social standing made them right. They weren't interested in what a couple of redneck brothers they looked down on had to say about a thing besides hunting in the area.

They wouldn't listen to a word that they had to say about how the group should proceed from there.

"They might listen ta Al," Daryl said. "She's got that fancy degree…might just listen to her."

Merle hummed again and then laughed as he crashed back through the thick underbrush.

"Just might," he said. "Good damn thing Al listens ta us."


	27. Chapter 27

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter here.**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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Things were tense in the camp, to say the least. They were tense, too, for a number of reasons, though Daryl wouldn't pretend to know all of them. He was observant enough, though, to put his finger on a few of them.

Alice had listened to him and Merle both and the discussion that had unfolded between them, hiding away like children who'd done something wrong behind the parked vehicles, had been nothing more than speculation on all their parts, but they were doing everything they could to figure out the nature of the beasts that they were running from…the beasts that were pursuing them to prey on them in their sleep.

Alice agreed with them. The Walkers were hunting them. It wasn't that they tripped upon the Walkers so much as that the Walkers might not be entirely attuned to them and the ones that seemed lost or seemed to simply be wandering were searching for a scent, or a sight, or maybe a noise.

There was no telling how strong their senses were, but they all believed their senses to be present.

All of them agreed, as well, that the Walkers were probable "pack animals" by chance or by choice. It could be that they were dumb enough to simply follow after each other because they couldn't reason anything else. It could be that they were smart enough to think there was power and success in numbers, or it could simply be something that was hotwired into their brains…however their brains might be wired now.

Alice believed that the brains of the Walkers only slightly resembled the brains of the humans, but she had little to go on. She'd had some conversation with Jenner where he'd told her the basic "drive" to eat that Walkers had, nothing else really being a capability for them, but she wasn't entirely sure she believed that to be all that Walkers were capable of. It was, clearly, the most obvious thing that they spent their time doing.

And they all agreed, unanimously, that sitting still was the worst thing that they could do…at least out in the open.

It was fine to go to an army camp. It was fine to go anywhere, really, but the important thing was that they not spend too much time milling about with nothing to protect them. They were vulnerable and the three of them had known that for a while. That's why they always slept in the truck. That was why they always kept moving. They'd already figured this out, even in the most basic form, and it seemed that they were the only ones to have even entertained the idea that staying long term, in such a large group, in the middle of nowhere might not be the best choice they could make.

So Alice had taken it up with Rick and Shane. She'd presented everything they'd talked about, apparently, as a combination of what Jenner had told her, what her impressive degree allowed her to figure out, and what "good common sense" told her that they should consider.

She'd apparently gotten to them by stressing the danger that Lori and Carl were in, ignoring that everyone else was in danger too, because Lori and Carl were clearly the only important members of this group. Everyone else was simply secondary at best.

So Daryl could attribute some of the tension in the air to Rick and Shane's discussions, after dismissing the brunette, about where they would go and how they would proceed from here in the morning, but there was something else there too.

There was something else going on between the two men and it was enough to make him uncomfortable, even a good distance away from them.

Rick was married to Lori, but Shane had been fucking Lori. They both had a "claim" to the woman, or believed they did, and it was obvious that some kind of pissing contest was in the brewing.

It seemed to Daryl that Lori was oblivious to it. Either she was oblivious to it or she didn't care. Either way, he'd decided that he wasn't too fond of the fact that she wasn't making any kind of move to quell the flickering flames of envy in the two men. If it blew up, and it would blow up, then it was likely to cause a world of shit for everyone around.

Daryl sat, eating his portion of the stew that Carol had served to him, and kept his eyes flicking around the group that was visible in the failing light of day.

Rick and Shane, Lori and Carl…some kind of conversation and awkwardness taking place there. Jacqui, T-Dog, and Dale sitting almost hip to hip, their eyes flicking around as much as Daryl's…quiet conversation passing between them. Glenn eating stew and leaning close to the small flames of the fire as he looked at a map that he carried around with him. Carol serving everyone, refilling bowls and plates and offering smiles and conversation like it was her job to be the servant of the group. Merle and Andrea sitting off to the side, together, no words passing between them. Alice…alone, not too far from Daryl…watching everyone with pretty serious intent as she ate.

And at Daryl's side sat Carol's daughter, quiet and studying her food, so that he could make sure that nothing happened to her if something were to happen to their camp while they were eating and Carol might not be able to reach the girl.

Daryl didn't know how to have a conversation with the girl, though, so he kept the guarded silence. It was Sophia that broke it, actually, sliding her body closer to his, the sound of her pants scraping on the dirt catching his attention, and then speaking to him in something barely above a whisper.

"Why did you kill my dad?" Sophia asked.

And Daryl felt his stomach churned because it wasn't the kind of conversation he would have ever expected to have with a ten year old girl.

He looked toward Carol for help, but she hadn't heard the question and was busy, unaware of the fact that Sophia was even talking to Daryl.

He cleared his throat.

"I didn't kill him," Daryl said. "Woulda…but didn't. Merle was the one who done it."

"Why did Merle kill him?" Sophia asked.

Daryl cleared his throat again against the feeling that he was choking.

"He was hurtin' ya Ma an' you," Daryl said. "He ain't had no right ta do that an' he weren't gonna stop."

Daryl paused, sought help with eyes again that didn't come, and then regarded Sophia.

She was maybe ten, maybe twelve…he didn't know what girls looked like when they were growing up. She was awkward and made almost entirely of elbows, or so it seemed to him. She was staring at him intently and waiting for more information. This conversation was serious to her. It was something that she was determined to have an answer on…and it was something that she deserved to have an answer on. Maybe it was wrong to discuss these things with her, but Daryl figured she was old enough to know some of the harsher realities of life. Goodness knows he'd been younger than her when he'd first become aware of some of the bad truths.

"Listen, kid, he weren't gonna stop an' it was gonna get worse," Daryl said. "Maybe it was wrong, but…weren't gonna tolerate it. I'm sorry ya lost ya old man, but I ain't sorry for what the hell my brother done. I'da done it myself if I'da had the gun an' the balls."

"I'm not," Sophia said after a moment.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"I'm not sorry that you killed him. Or…that Merle killed him," Sophia said. "I'm not sorry he's gone."

Daryl nodded.

He could understand that sentiment too. Maybe Sophia was more aware of the harsh realities of life than even he gave her credit for.

"I'm sorry you had ta know him," Daryl commented. Maybe that was more along the lines of what he really meant anyway.

Sophia hummed at him and thanked him quietly.

"Do you like my Mama?" Sophia asked.

Daryl sat there a moment and looked toward Carol. She was standing, on the other side of the fire, wiping at sweat with the sleeve of her shirt and glancing from person to person…she was checking to see if anyone needed anything. She was eating, if her activity could even be called that, while she stood in between tasks.

"Yeah," Daryl said. "Yeah…I like ya Ma."

Sophia nodded.

"She likes you too," Sophia said.

Daryl snorted at her response. He guessed that maybe Carol did like him. He'd always seen that kind of thing as complicated, but it was even more complicated now that they were essentially putting almost all of their effort in simply surviving to see the sun come up.

But there had to be something that was better, right? Even if they simply adjusted to this life and that's all there was to it, there had to come a time when the survival seemed easier and it started to give way to something that resembled living more.

And maybe…if that were the case…it wouldn't be objectionable to spend that time living with someone he liked, and someone who liked him.

"I reckon maybe she does," Daryl responded quietly, draining the last of his water bottle. "That bother you?"

Sophia hummed at him and then shook her head.

"Nah," she responded. "It doesn't bother me. I guess you're...you'd be nice to her, right? I mean because you like her?"

Daryl chuckled again to himself.

Maybe things were only so very complicated to him because he was an adult and worried about so much more than kids seemed to worry about. Or…maybe removing Ed from the equation had simply removed a lot of what this kid worried about. It was hard to tell.

"Yeah," Daryl commented. "I'ma try ta be nice to her."

Sophia slid a little closer to him and he wondered if she was getting cold. No matter how hot the days might be, it was somewhat chilled at night. It seemed to even be colder at night than it once had been. It could be the changing of the seasons coming, perhaps, or it might be the fact that they were slowly becoming adapted to life without the artificial temperature control that they'd encountered nearly every day before…they were becoming more sensitive to nature and the way things really were.

"You cold?" Daryl asked.

Sophia hummed again. Daryl looked around, but he wasn't wearing anything that he could put on.

"Got a jacket in the truck," he said. "You want it?"

"I'm going to the RV," Sophia said. "I have a sweater in there."

Daryl nodded at her.

He shifted around got up. Sophia got to her feet.

"I'll walk ya over there," he said.

Sophia walked across the little area where they were camping and Daryl watched her speak to Carol. He saw Carol glance at him, probably with Sophia's words that he was walking her to the RV and she smiled softly at him and nodded. Then he watched her catch Sophia in a tight embrace and then kiss the girl, lingering there a moment, on the forehead.

Then Sophia trotted back across the space and went right past him as though she simply expected him to follow. And if that's what she expected, then she was right. He followed her to the door of the RV and opened it, waiting on her to pass inside. Then he went in after and offered to light a lamp for her so that she wasn't sitting in the darkness. She thanked him when he lit the space and then he chewed at his thumb because he wasn't certain how to take his leave.

Finally he took it with a nod in her direction and started out the door.

"Daryl!" Sophia called, getting his attention. He stopped and turned to see what she might need. "I like you too," she offered quietly.

Daryl smiled to himself.

"Yeah," he said. "Like ya too."


	28. Chapter 28

**AN: Here we go, another little chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! **

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Just as night was falling over them, Daryl snuggled a little closer to Carol inthe cab of the truck.

"I guess tomorrow we're pulling out," Daryl said.

"I guess you're right," Carol replied, laughing a little at the statement. "Rick and Shane didn't seem very happy about the idea," Carol added a moment later. She hadn't mentioned anything about the snuggling. She seemed content to sit with her body close enough to Daryl's that he could feel the warmth of her on his side. It wasn't a feeling that he was opposed to in the slightest.

Darrell thought about the fact that they two men didn't seem very happy about the move that had been proposed to them by Alice with a little more force than either of them clearly liked getting from a woman. They didn't seem happy about it at all, but Daryl didn't know what it was, exactly, that pissed them off. It could have very well been that it was Alice that had suggested that they move on. It could have been that someone else, and not the two of them, had been the one to point out some of the possible flaws in their plans to simply sit by the side of the road and wait to become breakfast to a passing pack of Walkers.

Or it might not have anything to do with the moving on, their seeming lack of direction, or the Walkers at all. It might have to do with that Lori woman, and that was something that baffled Daryl.

He knew that both of the men had it bad for her, to put it simply, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. It had to be a case of different things tickling the fancy of different people.

And Lori certainly held very little interest for him, though he couldn't entirely say that about every woman around.

"They don't like that someone said somethin' to 'em," Daryl offered. "Don't like havin' someone question their authority."

Carol hummed. Daryl decided to keep his opinions on whatever was happening between the two men and the one woman to himself. He didn't want Carol to think that he was in the habit of judging a woman for what she did with her free time and her body…even if he might judge Lori just a little. But…then again…she had a ring on her finger and a perfectly live husband. He couldn't help if he thought that might make it appropriate for her to stop making certain kinds of eyes at her boyfriend all during dinner time.

Daryl moved enough to slightly nudge Carol with his arm. He wasn't good at this. He wasn't as talented as Merle was at getting women to do what he wanted or even to really notice him at all. Merle could go from zero to sixty with a woman in a matter of minutes before all this had happened…and he could clearly do it now as well.

Daryl didn't feel nearly as confident. But he thought the proximity might help let her know his intentions a little. He could, if she didn't appreciate the gesture, apologize and pretend it had been a total accident. He could make more space between them if that's what she wanted.

But she smiled at him when he nudged her, and he couldn't help but smile back. It was almost pitch black in the locked truck cab and he could barely see her face, but he could see enough of it, and they were alone. Everyone else was asleep, either in the house or in the vehicles surrounding them, and even if they weren't, they weren't paying them any attention.

Daryl swallowed.

"I'm thinking about kissing you right now," he said finally. He felt his face burn red at the words that had snuck out of his mouth, but she didn't move away from him.

"I'm thinking about you kissing me," she responded.

And Daryl decided that was the best invitation that he was likely to get. So he did kiss her and she responded to the kiss.

And he enjoyed it enough that he drew the kiss out far longer than it had to go on and she matched him, pulling away long enough to get her breath before bringing their lips back together.

Daryl wasn't entirely sure how he kissed. No one had ever told him before, but he liked the way that she kissed and he especially liked the way she was kissing right now. She was kissing like she was hungry for him. She was kissing like she was afraid that he was going to stop kissing her. And he almost did stop kissing her simply because his thoughts on it almost forced him to smile instead of concentrate on playing back with her lips and tongue the same way that she was coming at him.

Finally, feeling confident that she was at least somewhat interested in him…even if it was only for an inspection of his molars and tonsils, Daryl moved his hands to her waist and then eased them down as she shifted her body in a movement that almost turned her entirely in the seat. He found her ass, cupped it, and squeezed it in his fingers, the material of the soft pants she was wearing bunching in his hands.

She broke the kiss then and pulled away, slightly out of breath, and Daryl growled at her, afraid that he'd done something wrong. He'd read her signals wrong.

"Sorry?" He let out, not knowing whether it was the right word in the moment or not. He'd really thought she was into this, but now he wasn't sure because she'd moved far enough away from him in the cab that he couldn't see her clearly.

"Sorry?" She called back with about as much conviction in the word that Daryl felt he'd put into it. It struck him and he chuckled.

"We got an echo?" He asked. Maybe they did have an echo, because he heard a chuckle in return.

But when Carol came back, this time void of the shirt she'd been wearing and with her arms twisted behind her back in search of her bra's clasps, Daryl knew that his apology had been unnecessary.

"Is this OK?" She asked.

He smiled to himself.

"Good damn idea if you want my opinion," Daryl responded.

Just as she found the clasp on her bra, Carol brought her lips back to his and he returned his hands to her waist, this time finding her warm skin where the fabric of the shirt had been before. He moved his hands to help free her from the bra and toss it in the foot where he suspected her shirt had gone. Then he worked at getting rid of his own shirt and she backed off enough to let him.

When that item joined hers in the foot, Carol was already working her way out of her pants and underwear. If anyone had come by with a flashlight, the way that she was leaning up in the cab, curled over to free herself from the clothes, they would have probably gotten an eyeful that they hadn't bargained for.

She stopped mid movement and hissed out her words at him, for a moment acting as though she were afraid that someone might overhear them.

"Well?" She asked.

"What?" He responded.

She gestured at his pants.

"Are you leaving those on?" She asked.

He chuckled and lifted up enough to pop the button on the pants and pull down the zipper.

"Ain't gotta come all the way out," he commented.

She sat down abruptly on the seat and Daryl was acutely aware that he'd said something wrong…and he'd said something that was more than likely going to cost him this.

"What?" He asked, almost terrified of the answer.

"If I'm getting completely naked in the cab of this truck," Carol responded, "then I think it's only fair that you do too."

Daryl snorted.

"Why? Ain't necessary and it's too damn tight in here," he commented.

Carol reached into the food and he heard her curse when she bumped her head on the dash, misjudging the size of the space.

"What the hell you doin'?" Daryl asked.

"I don't want to be the only one that has to…take everything off. It's…embarrassing…to be naked in here," Carol said.

Her tone of voice didn't sound good to Daryl. He chewed his lip.

"It means that much to ya?" He asked.

Apparently not finding her shirt, she came up with the blanket that had gotten tossed down there and wrapped it around herself dramatically. It meant that much to her and it really didn't mean that much to Daryl.

"Fine," he said. "I'll come out my pants…shit…I just thought we'd cut some corners, but you want me bare assed…fine…get out the fuckin' truck an' run a damn lap tellin' all the Walkers what the hell we're doing if that makes ya happy…"

He continued to mutter while he moved around, more aware now than he was before at how difficult it was get around in the tight space, and came out of his pants and underwear. He was as bare assed as the day he was born, whether or not Carol could clearly see any more of his body than he could of hers at the moment.

And she smiled and rid herself of the blanket, finishing her earlier movements of losing her pants.

"Thank you," she said. And it sounded like a sincere thanks.

"Yeah," Daryl commented. "You could come thank me…ya know? Better'n words…"

There was a light chuckle from the woman and Daryl waited for her to come to him. She did come for a kiss, but she was apparently going to wait for him to make the move for more…and it might be easier in the space anyway to change their position from the one they'd adopted in the floor of the CDC bathroom.

So Daryl pushed her to lie back against the truck seat and kissed her again before he allowed his hands to begin their explorations. He felt her wrap her legs around him and run her heels up the back of his legs, the sensation making him groan. He wasn't sure how long he was supposed to wait, really, before he took things any farther, but he didn't wait very long and she welcomed him in, her fingers scratching at his arms gently as he began to establish a comfortable rhythm for them that would keep him or her either one from ramming their heads into the door of the truck.

When Daryl finally came, he didn't exactly want to relinquish his position…even if he was developing a hell of a cramp from the way that he was forced to angle himself. Pain won out, though, so a few quick kisses to Carol and he was driven to change his location.

And he didn't ask what she was doing when she reached and opened the glove box of the truck, digging around in the darkness. She was going after napkins…she'd find that…and she'd probably find a handgun in there too. But if she found it, she didn't say anything. She just got the napkins and closed the glovebox, passing him a napkin quietly.

"Alright?" He asked.

And she laughed in the darkness.

"What's so damn funny?" He asked, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. He worried she was laughing because it had been anything but alright and now she was laughing at the fact that he didn't even know that.

"Nothing," she responded. "It's just…Ed never cared if it was alright. It's a hard thing to get used to."

Daryl swallowed.

"Well I care," he commented.

"And it was better than alright," Carol answered.

She sighed.

"It's going to be harder to get the clothes on than it was to get them off," Carol said.

Daryl hummed.

"Let's just sleep under the blanket," he said. "Ain't nobody lookin' in no way."

"And in the morning?" Carol responded.

Daryl hummed again.

"I'll be up a long damn time before any a' them is," he said. "I'll wake up in time for us to get dressed an' ain't a soul gotta see us…besides…I don't want no damn body seein' my white ass shinin' no more'n you do."

Carol laughed in response and he wasn't sure if she was going to take him up on that offer, but it wasn't too long before she pulled the blanket up from the floor and moved toward him so that he knew what her intentions were. He positioned himself to sleep much like he had the night before and welcomed her to him, enjoying the feel of her skin next to his as she prepared to sleep more than he would have thought he might, so that he could cover them both with the blanket until the morning was closer and they had to prepare to move on down the road.


End file.
